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SURGEON GROW 




SurcKHi (iiuu III .1 Kussiaii trench. Note the trcncirs oxii-luiim, hiiilt as 
a protection against shrapnel. 



SURGEON GROW 

AN AMERICAN IN THE 
RUSSIAN FIGHTING 



BY 

MALCOLM C. GROW 

Formerly Lit'ut.-Colonel Imperial Russian Army Medical Corps 



WITH TWENTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR 




NEW YORK 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



^ 






Copyright, igi8, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 



All rights reserved, including that of translation into 
foreign languages 



■^■Pfi 15 (9/8 



TO 
THE HONORABLE RAY BAKER 

FORMERLY SECRETARY TO THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA 
NOW DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES MINT 

ALSO TO 

COLONEL A. E. KALPASCHNECOFF 

GENERAL MICHAEL PLESCHCOFF 

AND 

MY OTHER RUSSIAN FRIENDS 



FOREWORD 

One hot July day in 19 17, on a road a couple 
of miles back of the Russian trenches,! witnessed 
an incident which was to me one of the most sig- 
nificant in all my Russian experience. 

It was just when the Russian offensive, the plan 
of which was conceived and carried out by the 
Kerensky government, was beginning to break 
down. The revolutionary soldiers had gone for- 
ward in their attacks when ordered to do so, but 
their morale was bad and when the Germans 
counter-attacked, the line gave way at a certain 
point. Wild rumors were circulated by pro-Ger- 
man tools who were in the Russian ranks. They 
cried out that the German cavalry was surround- 
ing them, and caused a panic among the Russians, 
who turned and fled. 

I was standing by the roadside talking to a Brit- 
ish officer who was about to bring up his armored 
cars to get into action against the Germans. Sev- 
eral of these armored car sections had been sent 



viii FOREWORD 

by the British to Russia to give what help they 
could. The officer had ridden ahead of his motors 
to investigate the condition of the roads. As we 
stood talking the roll of drums, crackles of rifles 
and machine-gun fire could be heard from our posi- 
tion. 

Suddenly the British officer grasped my arm 
and pointing down the road in the direction of the 
trenches, exclaimed, "My word, old chap! what is 
raising that cloud of dust?" 

A great yellow cloud rose In the air, sw'eeping 
towards us rapidly. I thought of artillery limbers 
coming back for more shells, but the volume of 
that cloud was too great. As It rolled nearer we 
made out a great straggling disorganized mob of 
soldiers, running for their lives, apparently. 
Many were without hats or coats and some had 
thrown their rifles away. 

They were a panic-stricken mob bent only on 
putting as much space between themselves and the 
Germans as possible. Their grimy faces were 
streaked with sweat, their eyes glared wildly like 
the eyes of a stampeding herd of steers, as they 
bore down upon us. 

When they were about a hundred feet from us 
the dapper little English lieutenant stepped into 



FOREWORD ix 

the middle of the road, raised his walking stick 
aloft with his left hand and held out his right 
hand with the gesture of a traffic-policeman stop- 
ping a runaway horse. 

The frightened soldiers in the foremost ranks 
of the fleeing mob checked their pace, those in the 
rear crowded on. I expected to see them sweep 
that little khaki-clad figure aside like a straw, or 
trample him under foot. There were no Russian 
officers in sight. I thought they might have mur- 
dered any officers who had tried to stop their 
flight and I expected to see the Englishman go 
do\^ti with a bullet or a bayonet in his chest. 
Strange to say the entire crowd of nearly 500 men 
stopped before that dapper little figure with the 
outstretched arms. They stood stock still, their 
great burly chests heaving, their brown faces shin- 
ing with moisture. 

There was a strange silence for a moment, the 
thunder of pounding boots on hard earth had 
ceased and only the deep roll of artillery reached 
my ears. Then a clear, almost boyish voice began 
speaking in very bad Russian. The little officer 
told those Russians what he thought of them, 
what cowards they were to be running away, and 
ordered them to return and fight. It was not a 



X FOREWORD 

very grammatical speech but It was forceful and 
liberally interspersed with good English "cuss 
words." The mob stood silently listening, many 
with a shamefaced expression. They crowded up 
nearer to hear, the/ forgot their panic of a mo- 
ment before. When he finished speaking a scat- 
tered cheer which soon grew into^ a lusty roar 
from 500 throats boomed out. Several under- 
officers and soldiers said a few words and in a 
trice they had formed into an orderly body in 
columns of eight and were marching back toward 
the battlefield. Those who had thrown their rifles 
away picked them up again and returned and 
fought like demons. 

Had that ofiicer been a Russian he would have 
been killed in an instant, but the mere fact that 
he was a foreigner saved the situation. The Rus- 
sian soldier has a great respect for the French, 
the English and the American. Especially is the 
American looked up to, and it is astonishing the 
influence that can be wielded by one of our country- 
men. The Russian is a simple-minded, childlike 
individual, but he is also an idealist and at heart 
he loves his fellowmen. Being primitive, his pas- 
sions, either of love or hate, admiration or scorn, 
are naturally colossal. He is also sensitive to ex- 



FOREWORD xi 

traneous influences, as witness the effect of Ger- 
man propaganda. 

He is, and will be in the future, just as suscepti- 
ble to the sympathy or criticism of the American 
people. At this time he needs help, he needs sym- 
pathy and above all he needs understanding. We 
will gain nothing by adverse criticism, but should 
reap much benefit both now at this very critical 
time in our national existence and in after years 
if we pursue the proper course toward Russia. 

I have given a few lectures on Russia in the 
United States and have been struck by the division 
of feeling towards the Russian soldier. One at- 
titude is of distinct and decided contempt; the 
other is a real appreciation of what he has done in 
the past for the Allies, and of the great sacrifice 
he has made for our cause, with a warm expres- 
sion of sympathy for his present helpless and piti- 
able condition. 

The book I have written contains no argument. 
I have tried to tell the simple story of what I saw, 
to relate my own experiences and impressions in a 
purely narrative style, leaving the reader to draw 
his own conclusions. My earnest desire is to bring 
plainly before the American people the heroic 
fight these peasant soldiers put up while suffering 



xii FOREWORD 

under most adverse conditions in the field and 
while many baneful influences were at work in the 
rear, undermining the organization of the Russian 
government and military machine. 

Not only does Russia need our help at this time 
but I think all will agree that we need Russia's 
help. 

Surely there should be a bond of sympathy be- 
tween this the oldest, and Russia the youngest 
democracy, and a united front against Prussian 
autocracy and militarism. 

M. C. G. 

Media, Pa., March 22, 1918. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I I Go TO Russia i 

II Two Weeks OF Sight-seeing ... ii 

III The Hussars Hospital at Tsarskoe- 

Selo 20 

IV Preparing to Go to the Front . . 30 
V Off to the Front 39 

VI The Spectacle in the Frozen Lake 51 

VII The Professor of Mathematics . . 61 

VIII In the Russian Trenches .... y^ 

IX I Go "Over the Top" 94 

X I Meet THE Czar 119 

XI Over the German Lines .... 133 

XII Through a Shower of Shells . . 143 

XIII The Battle of Postovy , . . . 155 

XIV The Dogs of War 169 

XV Sound Sleepers 177 

XVI Injured by a Shell 186 

XVII The Medal of St. George . . . 196 

XVIII A Demonstration Attack .... 202 

XIX We Join Brusiloff*s Big Drive . . 219 

XX The Battle of the Stockhod . . . 243 

XXI We Breakthrough! 263 

XXII A Blind Army 275 

XXIII The Gas Attack 282 

XXIV The Revolution 286 

XXV After the Revolution 295 

xiii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Surgeon Grow in a Russian trench Frontispiece 

TAcmo 

PAGE 

Russian troops on their way south to help in BrusilofF*s big 
drive talk with wounded men returning from the fighting . lo 

Wounded men waiting to be loaded onto the cattle trucks that 
served as evacuation trains lo 

German ojSicers of a regiment of Prussian guards .... 56 

Battle flag of the captured regiment of Prussian guards . . 56 

White gowns were worn by the Russian troops as a camouflage 
when raiding the German trenches through the wastes of 
snow 108 

One of the first women soldiers 108 

Abandoned car of Prince Eitel Friedrich of Germany, being 
hauled out of the mud by Cossacks who captured it . . . 126 

Mid-day during the winter on the Northern front .... 126 

Machine guns mounted on revolving stand for use against 
enemy aeroplanes 134 

German albatross-type aeroplane shot down by the Russian 
anti-aircraft guns 134 

Surgeon Grow at the battle of Postovy, loading wounded into 
a little two-wheeled cart which served as ambulance . . . 164 

Wounded men arriving in the crude two-wheeled ambulance, 
the best conveyance known on the Russian front . . . 164 

Sanitary dogs, or dogs of war 174 

This dog has located a wounded man and is taking his hat as 

identification and means of bringing aid 174 

XV 



XVI ILLUSTRATIONS 



rACIK& 

PAGE 



A dressing station back of the lines at the battle of Postovy . 194 

Seriously wounded soldier being carried in by stretcher bearers 
during the demonstration attack 214 

"Streams of wounded soldiers barely able to walk, reeled along 
like drunken men through semi-darkness headed for our 
dressing station" . 214 

A dressing station during the battle of Stockhod .... 244 

Type of two-wheeled springless cart that served as ambulance 
on the Russian front 244 

Cossacks charging into a burning village to clean out the 
Austro-Germans, during the battle of Stockhod .... 262 

"I know that had we not recovered his body I should have 
been haunted all my life by the vision of that dangling form 
on the barbed wire'* 262 

Orderly who rescued a wounded man who lay for five days 
under the German barbed wire 272 

Shot through the lung, this wounded Russian soldier lay for five 
days under the German barbed wire not 40 feet from their 
trenches 272 

The dead laid in rows after the gas attack 282 

Large bomb-proof used as a dressing station and small bomb- 
proof in foreground where the author lived during the win- 
ter of 1916-1917 284 

Burial of the dead after the gas attack 284 



SURGEON GROW 



CHAPTER I 

I GO TO RUSSIA 

TF Dr. Edward Egbert, of Washington, D. C, 
■*■ had not been as persuasive a talker as he 
was skilled as a surgeon, the most eventful eight- 
een months of my life would, I suppose, have been 
passed instead in the humdrum pursuit of my pro- 
f,ession as a Philadelphia physician. 

As a physician, I would have followed with 
more than average interest the great drama then 
being unfolded in Europe, because warfare, with 
all its pain and suffering, makes a special appeal 
to medical men, but my part, like that of the bulk 
of Americans, would have been that of a sympa- 
thizing onlooker rather than that of an active 
participant. At any rate, not until the United 
States had entered the war would it seriously have 
occurred to me to disrupt my personal affairs to 



2 SURGEON GROW 

take a part in a struggle In which we were but 
remotely interested. 

As it was, however, the whole aspect of things, 
as far as I was concerned, was changed by a re- 
markable conversation I had with Dr. Egbert In 
Washington In August, 19 15. That Interview 
threw me Into the great struggle almost as sud- 
denly as Europe herself became engulfed In It. 

Some eight months before, Dr. Egbert had 
sailed from this country for Russia to become 
chief surgeon of the American Red Cross hospital 
at Kiev. He was home again on a short leave 
of absence and planned to return within a few 
weeks. 

We were In the Hotel Willard in Washington. 
It was a typical sultry August evening and we 
were seated by an open window although all the 
air we got came in the form of hot gusts from 
the street, bringing with them the shrill calls 
of newsboys, the honking of motor-car horns and 
the rattle of the street-cars. 

As Dr. Egbert described to me some of the 
conditions prevailing on the Russian front, how- 
ever, and the terrible things he had seen and 
undergone, I ceased to notice the sounds of the 
busy city. His story carried me to war-torn Ga- 



I GO TO RUSSIA 3 

llcia and before my eyes passed a stream of 
wrecked humanity, straggling back through the 
dusky forest isles from the field of battle which 
lay at their farther border. 

I could hear the cries of the wounded, the 
screeching of the shells and the rattle of the ma- 
chine-guns and rifles. 

*'When I was over there this spring," the doctor 
told me, "I saw thousands of wounded sent back 
to the evacuation hospitals with only the care 
which could be given them by orderlies — ^men who, 
it is true, had received a few months' training 
but who lacked any real knowledge of modern 
aseptic methods in the treatment of the wounded. 

*7ust think,*' he continued, "the Russian regi- 
ments number four thousand, and sometimes after 
a fight a bare few hundred come back unscathed, 
perhaps a thousand being killed and the balance 
— more than two thousand — being more or less 
seriously wounded — and the regiment has just 
three doctors ! What possible chance have three 
doctors to give proper attention to more than two 
thousand cases in the space of the few hours at 
their disposal!" 

This was a revelation to me. I had no idea 



4 SURGEON GROW 

that any of the armies in the great conflict were 
so poorly equipped with medical men. 

*'As you know," the doctor went on, *'I was in 
charge of the hospital at Kiev. When these poor 
fellows reached me after journeying for perhaps 
three or four days from the front their condition 
was pitiable. Many of them still had on the orig- 
inal first aid dressings which the orderlies had 
applied on the battle-field and in a great percent- 
age of the cases the delay in administering proper 
medical attention had resulted disastrously. 

"Grow, Russia needs doctors and needs them 
badly. There is no time to lose. We must for- 
get all questions of race or nationality and re- 
member only that we are doctors and are able 
to avert some of the awful suffering which our 
fellow human-beings are compelled to endure for 
the want of the attention which we can provide. 
How about your going over with me, Grow?" 

I must confess that the doctor's eloquence had 
deeply impressed me, but not until he put the ques- 
tion to me flatly had I sensed its personal appli- 
cation. 

*'If you will come with me, Grow, when I sail 
two weeks from to-day," the doctor continued, no- 
ticing my hesitation, "you'll never regret it, I can 



I GO TO RUSSIA 5 

assure you. rm going on the Russian munition 
ship Dvinsk from New York, and if you'll go with 
me I'm quite sure you won't have the slightest 
difficulty in obtaining a commission in the Rus- 
sian army medical service. You will gain there 
an experience in surgery in a few months which 
you could not get otherwise in years and years 
of private practice. 

"I don't know, but we all feel — all of us who 
are in Europe — that America is bound to be 
drawn into this great world conflict. If we do 
come in, the training and experience which you 
will get In Russia will stand you in good stead 
when the opportunity comes to serve your own 
country. 

*'Aside from that — think of the help you will 
be to suffering humanity. The satisfaction you 
will derive from that in after years will more than 
repay you for the time you devote to this work. 
Will you come?" 

The surgeon's eyes glowed with enthusiasm. 
He was a very different man from the one I had 
known some eight months before. It was not so 
much the lines of care in his face as it was some- 
thing else which I cannot describe. As it was, as 
I looked earnestly into his face I realized that the 



6 SURGEON GROW 

part he had played In the great war had made 
him better and stronger than when I had last seen 
him. 

I made a sudden decision. I resolved to go to 
Russia. I would throw up my practice, sail with 
Dr. Egbert two weeks hence, and try to get a com- 
mission In the Russian army. The doctor's elo- 
quence had awakened In me an Inherent love of 
adventure, a latent desire to see this great world 
tragedy, and a growing belief that the experience 
which I would gain In Russia would prove of some 
benefit to my own country later on. 

That was In the latter part of August, 19 15. 
Just one month later, Dr. Egbert and I drove 
down the Morskaya In Petrograd, swung round 
the corner Into St. Isaac's square, over whose 
cobblestones our droshky clattered, and halted In 
front of our hotel opposite the great cathedral. 

This hotel, the Astoria, was situated on the 
square. It was a large brownstone building, built 
and owned by a German company but taken over 
by the Russian government after war was de- 
clared. 

We arrived about tea-time and the lobby was 
filled with a brilliant throng of officers and ladles. 
An orchestra was playing, and save for the pres- 



I GO TO RUSSIA 7 

ence of officers with arms in slings and others who 
walked on crutches, one could scarcely have real- 
ized that it was war-time. 

I shall always remember my first dinner in the 
Astoria. Dr. Egbert and myself were the guests 
of several Americans who were stopping there. 
At one end of the beautiful dining-room of the 
hotel was a long counter upon which was dis- 
played all manner of zachowsky, caviar, smoked 
fish of every description, mushrooms pickled in 
vinegar, shrimp, crawfish, etc. White-garbed at- 
tendants served whatever was selected, which was 
eaten right there or taken to the table. Then 
followed a typical Russian dinner of cabbage- 
soup, trout, quail, roast veal, various vegetables, 
artichokes, dessert and tea — a remarkable con- 
trast to the foodless banquets which have since 
become to prevalent all over the world. 

It was a brilliant assemblage. At a small table 
on our right was the Grand Duke Michael with a 
party of friends. He was a slender chap, about 
thirty-six years of age. His hair was close- 
cropped and he wore the uniform of a captain of 
Hussars. At other tables were Cossack officers 
with their picturesque, many-colored uniforms, 
silver-handled sabres and daggers, with revolvers 



8 SURGEON GROW 

on their hips, dark swarthy faces and glowing 
black eyes, lending color and atmosphere to the 
scene. 

When a general, his breast covered with crosses 
and other decorations, would enter the room, 
every officer of lower rank would rise from his 
table, click his spurs together and bow, the gen- 
eral bowing in return and the officers standing 
facing him until he was seated. 

The women were superb in their Parisian 
gowns, and I had never seen such jewels. A viva- 
cious conversation was general and there was 
much laughter. French was spoken more than 
Russian. 

This picture is so vastly different from that 
which I saw some fourteen months later when I 
returned to Russia after a short visit home — dur- 
ing which time the Czar had been deposed — that, 
at the cost of digressing, I can't help referring to 
It. 

I found that the Astoria had been wrecked by 
the Revolutionists. The dining-room was a sham- 
bles. Officers no longer kept up their appear- 
ance or bearing and the few who dined in the 
soiled, bedraggled room, presided over by inso- 
lent, slovenly Tartar waiters, ate silently, with 



I GO TO RUSSIA 9 

gloomy, hopeless faces, brooding over the chaos 
which surrounded them and addressing the waiters 
in the most respectful tones lest they be refused 
service. 

But to return to my first visit to Petrograd. 
After dinner, Dr. Egbert met in the lobby a young 
officer acquaintance, Captain Dumbrofsky, who 
spoke English and from, whom I got the first ink- 
ling of what was going on in Russia as a result 
of German propaganda. 

Captain Dumbrofsky's right arm was bandaged 
and carried in a sHng and he looked fagged and 
worn. 

**It has been terrible!" he exclaimed. *'We 
have been steadily retreating for two months. 
Our soldiers have fought magnificently, holding 
trenches until whole regiments have been simply 
wiped out by the Nemets' (German) long range 
heavy artillery. My own regiment has been all 
but annihilated — all my comrades are killed or 
wounded." 

*'How Is it that you have been unable to hold 
them?" I asked. 

"The trouble has been," the Captain explained, 
a little shamefacedly, "we have no equipment. 
Our men have had to fight with clubs and stones. 



lo SURGEON GROW 

Our field artillery, the guns of which can fire 
eighteen shells per minute, were allowed for many 
days only three shells per day for each gun !" 

We asked him what his personal plans were. 

"I am only slightly wounded," he replied, "and 
hope to return to the front in a few days. I can- 
not stay here in Petrograd while my country is 
being invaded." 

He looked a fit subject for a hospital and I told 
him I thought he should not return too soon. 

'^Nichevof It is nothing!" he said. "I am 
quite well and strong, and my place is at the 
front." 

"They are nearly all like that," Dr. Egbert 
explained to me as we walked away; "they simply 
don't know what quit means." 

My subsequent experiences fully confirmed the 
doctor^s view. 



CHAPTER II 

TWO WEEKS OF SIGHT-SEEING 

'T^HE next morning we were up early. One of 
-*• the first things we did was to pay a visit to 
Henry, one of our fellow-passengers on the voy- 
age from America to Russia. 

Henry was a little mouse-like man who had 
never been a hundred miles from the small sea- 
port town in New England which was his home. 

Henry had been employed all his life with a 
shipbuilding company. This company had built 
some submarine-chasers for the Russian govern- 
ment but for some reason or other they refused 
to chase. The motors wouldn't go and the ves- 
sels were lying in the Gulf of Finland, near Kron- 
stadt, waiting for tlie magic touch of some one 
from the shipbuilding company, and Henry had 
been delegated to apply it. 

"There's something wrong with the hot-water 
tap in my bathroom," complained Henry, as we 

II 



12 SURGEON GROW 

entered his room, which was on the floor below 
ours. ''I've tinkered with the durned thing for 
an hour but I can't get it to work.'* 

* Well, why don't you get the hall porter to fix 
it for you?" suggested Dr. Egbert. "You'll find 
him out there by the elevator." 

Henry went out and in a moment or two re- 
turned with a uniformed man who, to say the 
least, seemed most reluctant to help Henry solve 
the problem of the hot-water tap. Indeed, if 
Henry had not dragged him forcibly by the arm, 
he certainly wouldn't have entered the room at all. 

*'I want you to fix the hot-water tap," Henry 
explained, holding the rebellious official with one 
hand and pointing to the bathroom with the other. 

Right then it occurred to me that something 
was very much amiss. The old gentleman whom 
Henry had dragged into his room looked as if he 
were going to have an apoplectic fit, and a glance 
I got at Dr. Egbert showed me that he was almost 
in as precarious a condition. 

With an indignant snort, Henry's prisoner tore 
himself from his captor's grasp and rushed from 
the room with Henry in pursuit. 

"Great Scott, Henry!" shouted Dr. Egbert. 



TWO WEEKS OF SIGHTSEEING 13 

"Come back, will you! That's not the porter; 
that's an admiral of the Russian Navy!" 

Henry's jaw fell and he almost collapsed. 

"YouVe got yourself in dutch now, for fair," 
Dr. Egbert went on. "You've gravely Insulted 
him, and the chances are he'll have you thrown 
into prison." 

"But I thought he was the porter — with all 
that gold braid and stuff — and he was standing at 
the elevator, too," replied Henry, whose face had 
turned the color of ashes. 

Just then a dapper little fellow in the blue uni- 
form of a naval lieutenant knocked at the door 
and. In a very correct English, declared: 

"The Admiral demands an apology from the 
American who has so gravely insulted him!'* 

Henry being quite speechless. Dr. Egbert ex- 
plained the cause of the supposed affront and of- 
fered Henry's profuse apologies to the Admiral. 

The Lieutenant clanked his heels together, sa- 
luted, and solemnly withdrew. After a few mo- 
ments he returned with the information that the 
Admiral would accept the apologies of the Ameri- 
can — a message which undoubtedly saved Henry's 
life, because I fully believe another five minutes 
of suspense would have killed him. 



14 SURGEON GROW 

The Incident was an amusing one to me; but 
Henry's mistake was really quite excusable be- 
cause of the fact that In Russia every one wears 
some sort of uniform, even the school children, 
and one has to live in Russia quite a while before 
understanding the significance of all the different 
uniforms which are worn. 

After breakfast, Dr Egbert suggested that we 
go sight-seeing, and I gladly acquiesced. 

After considerable hagghng with an isvoscheek, 
or cabman, In front of the hotel — a most neces- 
sary preliminary — we piled Into the rickety old 
cab and went clattering off over the cobblestones 
of St. Isaac's Square. 

These isvoscheeks are droll looking fellows, 
with great padded coats fastened around the waist 
by a tight belt. The more costly the equipage 
and the finer the horse, the greater the padding, 
and the fare seemed to vary in direct ratio with 
the amount of padding — an isvoscheek who 
looked as though he could roll more easily than 
walk charging two or three times as much as a 
more slender one. They were usually bearded 
and wore quaint high hats and altogether they 
presented a very weird appearance — especially if 
the face and neck were thin and scrawny in con- 



TWO WEEKS OF SIGHTSEEING 15 

trast to the hugely padded body. Some were 
mere boys of fourteen or fifteen, but all wore the 
quaint top hat, no matter how battered or frayed, 
and the huge padded coat. 

We passed a long column of men marching four 
abreast, with an armed guard of soldiers escort- 
ing them. They were raw youths In every con- 
ceivable costume — a draft of new troops called 
up for training. They ambled and slouched along 
carrying bundles and packages, shuffling In their 
heavy boots — typical country bumpkins. 

"How can they ever make soldiers out of such 
material?" I asked. 

"Well, there's the answer," replied Dr. Eg- 
bert, pointing ahead of us, "those soldiers you 
see marching towards us were an exact counter- 
part of these fellows only a few weeks ago." 

I looked In the direction he Indicated and saw 
a long, orderly line of soldiers in grey-brown 
marching towards us In perfect rhythm, with the 
free swing of the Russian military step, their 
heavy hobnailed boots thumping the cobblestones 
in absolute time. Fine erect soldierly men they 
were, every slender bayonetted rifle at the same 
angle, every movement in unison. 

We stopped a moment as they passed us. The 



i6 SURGEON GROW 

officer's voice could be heard ringing out with 
bell-like clearness, a great church we were passing 
acting as a sounding-board, as he addressed an 
order to his men, then a metaUic clatter as every 
rifle-butt hit the cobblestones together. 

Our isvoscheek took us through the great wide 
thoroughfare called the Nevsky Prospect. As 
wide as it was, both sidewalks and road-bed were 
very crowded and our isvoscheek had constantly 
to yell at unwary pedestrians who got in our way, 
rattling his whip in the socket and waving his arms 
to urge the horse on. 

The buildings were immense solid-looking struc- 
tures, some of stone but many of stucco. They 
had been painted yellow or reddish brown but 
most of them were faded and dingy and looked 
in need of a new coat. 

Most of the men we passed were in uniform. 

One of the pecuHarities I noticed was the fact 
that practically every shop in addition to a sign 
giving the name of the firm and the commodity 
handled had a picture of the commodity painted 
on the walls — a baker's shop having loaves of 
bread, rolls and cakes painted above the windows, 
a furniture store chairs, tables, couches and side- 
boards, and so on. 



TWO WEEKS OF SIGHTSEEING 17 

This was done, Dr. Egbert explained, because 
seventy per cent, of the population could not read 
and lettered signs meant nothing to them. While 
this revelation of the proportion of illiteracy in 
Russia was appalling, It was rather consoling to 
me to reflect that the Ignorance of the natives 
would make shopping easier for me. 

Altogether I spent two weeks in sight-seeing, 
and very interesting weeks they were. I had many 
wonderful drives through the islands. There 
were dinners at Felician's on the balcony over- 
looking the canal where boats carrying students 
rowing with their sweethearts In the crisp Octo- 
ber evenings would float by, the silence broken 
by beautiful youthful voices singing the sad ro- 
mances the Russian loves so well. 

Meanwhile, of course, I was watching for an 
opportunity to enter the Russian army medical 
service. The fact that I did not speak Russian 
and had no friends in the Russian army made the 
task extremely difficult, but finally I heard, 
through an American acquaintance, of a Russian 
surgeon who was anxious to go away to Finland 
for a vacation. He had been working day and 
night since the beginning of the war and was 
nearly broken down from the strain of overwork. 



i8 SURGEON GROW 

Securing a letter of introduction from the 
American, I called on this surgeon, Dr. VIcker, 
at his office. 

Dr. VIcker was a charming man, of middle age, 
with a scar from cheek bone to chin from a sabre 
cut received while a student In Germany. 

He explained to me that he was chief surgeon 
to the Hussars Hospital at Tsarskoe-Selo, which 
had a hundred and fifty beds, and he was also 
attending a large private practice. He was doing 
all of the surgical work, having only a woman 
doctor In the hospital, who acted as anesthetist 
and resident physician, to help him. The fighting 
was Intense at that time, October, 19 15, and they 
were crowded with work. 

"I shall be very glad, Dr. Grow,'* he declared, 
after a short Interview In which I told him of my 
professional experience In America, *'to have you 
come with me to-morrow to Tsarskoe-Selo and 
help me with several operations. I can then judge 
of your ability and you will become familiar with 
our work. Meet me. If you will, at the Tsars- 
koe-Selo Station at Petrograd at seven o'clock to- 
morrow morning." 

Delighted with the opportunity to do some 



TWO WEEKS OF SIGHTSEEING 19 

work, I thanked him for his Interest and prom- 
ised to be on hand In time. Sight-seeing was very 
interesting, but I had left America to work in 
Russia, not to enjoy myself, and I was very anx- 
ious to start in. 



CHAPTER III 

THE HUSSARS HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 

A FORTY-FIVE minute ride by train from 
Petrograd brought us to Tsarskoe-Selo — 
which literally means the village of the Czar. It 
was so called because the Emperor had his favor- 
ite palace there, where he spent most of his time 
before he became commander-in-chief of the Rus- 
sian Armies in the field, when he removed to 
Mogheliv, where the General Staff was located. 

We engaged a droshky and drove to the hos- 
pital, passing some of the beautiful grounds sur- 
rounding the palace. 

The hospital was a large white structure, used 
in peace times as the special hospital of the Hus- 
sars, a large body of whom are permanently sta- 
tioned at Tsarskoe-Selo. On the ground floor was 
the receiving room and two large airy wards with 
rows of white cots all occupied by wounded sol- 
diers. 

On the second floor was the oflEcers' ward, an 

20 



HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 21 

operating room and dressing room, baths, etc.; 
while the third floor was divided Into small pri- 
vate rooms for cases requiring isolation and quiet, 
and the rooms for the resident doctor and several 
resfdent nurses. 

All the nurses except one were titled women 
who, at the beginning of the war, had taken the 
six months' training course required to become a 
war-sister. They had given up everything else 
and devoted themselves resolutely to the task in 
hand. 

The exception was a lady who had been a pro- 
fessional nurse for many years, and who acted as 
assistant in operations and had charge of the op- 
erating room. 

I met the head sister. Baroness Maria Alexan- 
drovna P , a fine motherly woman of fifty- 
five, with snow-white hair and the sweetest face 
imaginable, and the ten other sisters, all of whom 
were either Baronesses or Princesses with the ex- 
ception of the little professional nurse, who was 
simply Sister Olga Michaelovna. 

Let me digress for a moment to explain Rus- 
sian names. In Russia persons are called by their 
first names and their middle names, which latter 
consists of the father's name to which. In a male, 



22 SURGEON GROW 

ovitch is added, and, In a female, ovna is added. 
Thus Olga Michaelovna signified Olga, the daugh- 
ter of Michael. Even servants address their mas- 
ters by the first two names, the family name being 
invariably omitted. The Grand Duke Nicholas 
is spoken of by every one as Nicholi Nicholiovich. 

All of the sisters spoke English perfectly, many 
of them having received their education in Eng- 
land and all having travelled and spent much 
time there. This was a great relief to me and m 
conjunction with the charming friendliness and 
courtesy with which I was received quickly put me 
at my ease. 

Dr. Vicker led the way to the wash-room and 
we scrubbed up and donned sterile gowns. 

Two operations were done: the first, a brain 
operation in which we evacuated and drained a 
large brain abscess; the second, an amputation at 
the thigh for gangrene. 

Dr. Vicker was a skilful and dexterous surgeon 
and I have never seen finer work done. The sis- 
ters worked like veteran nurses and everything in 
the operating-room was like clock-work. 

Next came the dressing of cases. They were 
wheeled in on stretchers by orderlies, and trans- 
ferred to an operating table, where the bandages 



HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 23 

were removed, the wounds inspected and dress- 
ings applied. 

Many of these wounds were horribly infected, 
and drainage tubes and gauze drains had to be 
removed and fresh ones inserted. I was aston- 
ished at the fortitude with which these men bore 
their pain. They would grip the hand of one of 
the kindly nurses until the muscles in their arms 
stood out like knots, and the sister would wince 
with pain from the pressure, but never a word of 
complaint came from the soldier. When asked if 
it hurt very much, the soldier would smile, al- 
though paUid and damp with agony, and reply: 
^'Nichevo!*' meaning, "It is nothing!'^ 

Forty or fifty dressings were done and then we 
visited some cases which did not require dress- 
ings. 

One of them was a case which had developed 
tetanus, or lockjaw, the day before. He had had 
a shght wound of the instep from a piece of high 
explosive shell. It had nearly healed when the 
dread symptom of lockjaw developed. 

As we entered the little room in which he was 
isolated, his body was arched like a bent bow, 
resting on his heels and the back of his head, his 
face drawn into a ghastly grin, the teeth exposed, 



24 SURGEON GROW 

the expression sardonic. This convulsion lasted 
a long time and gradually relaxed but not com- 
pletely. At the slightest noise or a sudden move- 
ment, the condition would be repeated. 

"A terrible thing this," the doctor whispered. 
"We haven^t enough serum to give a prophylactic 
dose to all our wounded as they do in France, and 
I have had four cases in this hospital, all of which 
have died." 

I inquired as to the amount of anti-tetanic 
serum they were using in the treatment and found 
that it was infinitesimal — only 1,500 units — as 
compared with the doses used In America, and 
was injected only under the skin. 

"May I try the treatment we use In America — 
large doses into the spinal canal and veins?" I 
asked. 

"Certainly," replied the doctor, "if we can se- 
cure such a large amount of serum, but we are 
allowed only a small quantity because the supply 
In Russia Is so limited." 

I was determined to cure that man If It were 
possible; and after we had returned to Petrograd 
I called on one of the Americans I knew, who was 
travelling for one of our large manufacturing 
chemists. 



HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 25 

**How much anti-tetanic serum have you, 
Philip?" I inquired. 

*'About a million units." 

*'May I have 500,000? I want it to save a 
case at the Hussars Hospital." And I explained 
to him the facts of the case. 

*'Why, certainly, Doctor," he replied. "Pll get 
it for you at once." 

I boarded the next train to Tsarskoe-Selo, with 
the precious serum in my kit. I gave the patient 
100,000 units at once, part into the spinal column 
with a long hollow needle, and the rest into a 
vein. 

The head nurse was astonished at the enormous 
dose and very skeptical as to the results, but I 
was hopeful, and was rewarded the next morning 
by a slight diminution in the severity and number 
of the convulsions. I repeated the dose, and the 
next day, when with Dr. Vicker I visited the pa- 
tient, his improvement was quite noticeable. 

A plump, rosey-cheeked little sister, the Prin- 
cess Tatiana Alexandrovna, had taken this poor 
fellow, a fine lad of about twenty-five, as her spe- 
cial charge. She had been tireless in her atten- 
tion, and as I stood watching him I felt that in 
her I had a staunch ally in the desperate fight 



26 SURGEON GROW 

against death. I wasn't mistaken. I learned that 
with infinite patience and gentleness she had man- 
aged to separate the tightly locked jaws from 
time to time to allow some liquid nourishment to 
trickle, drop by drop, down the rigid throat, 
which the slightest disturbance was apt to throw 
into convulsions expelling the food. 

We gave still another 100,000 units, and that 
evening I was informed by telephone of appre- 
ciable improvement in the patient's condition. 

The next day the dose was reduced to 30,000 
units, and later to 10,000, which was continued 
for a week, by which time he had entirely re- 
covered. 

The recovery of this man gave me a prestige 
In the hospital which no amount of real hard 
work at dressings and operating table could have 
done. To a certain extent, it was what we call 
"playing to the grandstand." On the other hand, 
the man's life was saved, and that, of course, was 
the important thing. But I believe, after that, I 
could have made all manner of mistakes and still 
retained the respect and admiration of those 
sisters. 

During the week that the tetanus case was be- 
ing treated, I worked every day with Dr. Vicker, 



HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 27 

and he finally decided that I had become familiar 
enough with the work to carry it on alone, and he 
left for Finland, leaving me in charge. 

We had received no new wounded since I began 
work, but on the contrary had been discharging 
some of the convalescent cases to be sent to special 
convalescent hospitals. The night after Dr. Vic- 
ker left, at 10 p. M., I received word by telephone 
at my hotel to come at once to Tsarskoe-Selo, as 
new wounded were coming in. 

Arriving at the hospital I found all the sisters 
hard at work cleaning up some forty soldiers who 
had just arrived. They had been four days in 
the train and many had not had their bandages 
changed since leaving the first aid stations near 
the firing line and had been bumped around all 
this time lying on straw in box cars. 

They were naturally in a terrible condition — 
muddy, covered with vermin, and many badly in- 
fected. 

Of the forty, five had gangrenous phlegmon or 
gas bacillus infection so severe as to require im- 
mediate amputation, two below the knee, two at 
the thigh, and one at the wrist. 

The task of getting them ready for operation 
was a nasty one. They had to be bathed, have 



28 SURGEON GROW 

their hair clipped and clean clothes put on, yet 
these women, not one of whom before the war 
had ever done a stroke of disagreeable work or 
even had to experience anything unpleasant, went 
about their tasks cheerfully and smiling, always 
gentle and kind, caring for those peasant soldiers 
as though they were their very own children. 

I recall one old fellow who had a very large 
red beard. He was a driver on a soup kitchen 
and had been hit on the head by a piece of shrap- 
nel, producing a nasty scalp wound. It was neces- 
sary to clip his hair and beard short, as they were 
matted with blood and dirt. If we had decided 
to amputate his head he could not have put up 
more of a fight than when he observed that we 
were about to shave off his beard. 

After Baroness Maria Alexandrovna had talked 
to him for ten minutes as one would talk to a 
captious child, however, she won him over, al- 
though during the clipping process tears came to 
the poor chap's eyes as he witnessed the massacre 
of his great flaming red beard — the pride of his 
simple life. 

The busy weeks sped on and I became thor- 
oughly engrossed in my work. At length. Dr. 
Vicker returned. He asked me to continue on as 



HOSPITAL AT TSARSKOE-SELO 29 

his assistant, but I had just heard of a man who 
had come up from the front looking for a surgeon 
and I was anxious to get into more active service. 
The man in question was Col. Kalpaschnecoff, 
commander of the 21st Flying Column attached 
to the First Siberian Army Corps. I had never 
heard of the Colonel before but I had heard of 
the famous corps to which he was attached. It 
had been christened the "Ironside Corps" because 
of its wonderful achievements in this war. I left 
Tsarskoe-Selo to offer myself to Col. Kalpasch- 
necoff. 



CHAPTER IV 

PREPARING TO GO TO THE FRONT 

npHROUGH a war correspondent for an 
"*■ American newspaper who was stopping at 
the Astoria, a luncheon was arranged at which I 
was presented to Col. Kalpaschnecoff. 

The Colonel proved to be a charming fellow. 
He had formerly been an attache at the Russian 
Embassy in Washington, having left the diplo- 
matic service at the outbreak of the war and been 
placed in command of the 21st Flying Column. 

"You'll find things pretty rough at the front," 
he said, in perfect English, his keen brown eyes 
searching my face. "The work Is up In the first 
line trenches and things get rather hot occasion- 
ally. My surgeon was killed a few weeks ago." 

I told him I wanted to see some action and was 
willing to take a chance, but I was afraid that my 
Ignorance of the Russian language would prevent 
my getting a commission. 

"I think we can get around that all right," the 
30 



PREPARING TO GO TO FRONT 31 

Colonel replied. *'I have three medical students 
who will act as your assistants. One of them 
speaks English. Get a letter from the Hussars 
Hospital and bring your medical college diploma 
and we will go to-morrow to the Russian Red 
Cross and get you a commission in the Army 
medical service." 

It sounded very easy and it looked as though 
at last my wish to get to the front was going to 
be realized. 

Colonel Kalpaschnecoff was a whirlwind. His 
stay in Washington had evidently taught him 
American methods. He went to the Red Cross 
and walked through secretaries and clerks as 
though they were wet paper, literally brushing 
them aside as they tried to stop us to Inquire our 
business, and before they had recovered we were 
In the presence of the all-powerful, and the Col- 
onel was telling him that I was the man he wanted 
for his surgeon and that no other would do. 

The chief was a big burly fellow, who sat smok- 
ing a long fragrant Russian cigarette. He had a 
glass of tea at his elbow on the desk. He asked 
the Colonel a few questions as to my ability, ex- 
perience and credentials, and Kalpaschnecoff 
showed him the excellent letter from the heads of 



32 SURGEON GROW 

the Tsarskoe-Selo Hospital, translated the head- 
ing of my diploma, and the trick was done. 

When it came to filling out the necessary blanks, 
I was asked whether my middle name — *'Cum- 
mings" — was my father's name. When I told 
them that it was my grandfather's they decided 
that I would have to change it. My father's 
name was Alva and they thereupon rechristened 
me "Malcolm Alvaovitch Grow" ! 

**You will receive the commission of a captain," 
I was informed, "but being a foreigner it is cus- 
tomary to raise the rank one degree and you will 
wear the uniform of a put-pulkovjieck/' The lat- 
ter designation meant literally a lieutenant-colonel, 
which is the next rank above captain, there being 
no major in the Russian Army. 

I expressed my surprise to the Colonel at the 
quickness with which he had carried off things. 

"It's a trick I learned in Ajnerica," he repHed; 
"simply rush them off their feet. I told them you 
must have all your papers In three days as we 
leave for the front in five. Now you must get 
uniforms and equipment. Here is a list you will 
need. Get busy and I will call at the hotel in a 
couple of days and see how you are getting on." 

I drove back to the hotel rather dazed by the 



PREPARING TO GO TO FRONT 33 

rapidity with which my destiny was rushing on. 
Here I was, a peace-loving American doctor step- 
ping Into the boots of a man killed two weeks ago 
by a German shell, thousands of miles from home 
and friends, with a commission In an army of 
strange folks with whom I must remain through 
unknown perils until such time as I might be "re- 
lieved of duty at the pleasure of the Army Com- 
mand or until the end of the war'' — so read the 
paper which I had just signed. 

But that was what I had come over for and I 
was determined to see it through. 

Arriving at the Astoria, I found Dr. Egbert 
just back from Kiev, the American Red Cross 
having withdrawn all Its units from Europe be- 
cause of lack of funds to maintain them. 

"You lucky dog!" was the greeting I got from 
the doctor, when I told him of my good fortune. 
"I came over hoping to have work right at the 
front and they gave me a Base Hospital in a city, 
while you step right into the real thing." 

He told me he was going to remain in Petro- 
grad a few weeks to settle up some business and 
then he was going back to America, which made 
me feel even more strongly the loneliness and Iso- 
lation which were soon to be mine. 



34 SURGEON GROW 

I had the tailor come to the hotel and I se- 
lected material for my uniform which he said he 
could have made up in three days. 

Dr. Egbert and I went shopping and I pur- 
chased a huge curved sabre, as described on Kal- 
paschnecoff's list, several pairs of high black 
boots, and a funny Persian lamb cap, gray and 
high, the regulation winter cap for officers, worn 
cocked over the right ear. I also got a pair of 
nice jingly spurs. 

During the next few days I watched the officers 
around the hotel rather closely. I had to learn 
just how to click my heels together when I sa- 
luted a superior or when I shook hands with an 
officer. The spurs produce a fine ringing sound 
which Dr. Egbert described as ^'singing with the 
feet." It was also necessary to learn not to salute 
when my hat was off — merely to bow and click 
my heels. 

The hotel lobby was a very interesting and in- 
structive place to sit at that period and I spent a 
great deal of time there. By observation I was 
soon able to familiarize myself with the insignia 
which went with the different ranks and the vari- 
ous branches of the service. 

Several Americans dropped into my rooms for 



PREPARING TO GO TO FRONT 35 

tea. Indicating my sheepskin coat hanging back 
of a curtain, one of them asked me if I were 
keeping a goat. 

As a matter of fact, Kalpaschnecoff had told me 
that it was frequently from fifteen to twenty de- 
grees below zero at the front in mid-winter and 
it was now the first of December. 

It was certainly getting cold here in Petrograd. 
Furs were being worn by every one and the short 
period of daylight lasting only from 9 A. M. to 
3 :30 p. M. told that the bleak cold gray days of 
the long Russian winter were upon us. 

My uniforms finally came and I rigged myself 
out and went down to dinner, sabre and all, it be- 
ing necessary to wear the weapon in official Petro- 
grad although it could be dispensed with, strangely 
enough, at the front. I was grateful for the lat- 
ter regulation, as the sabre was constantly getting 
between my legs and banging about in a very un- 
comfortable manner, my entry into the crowded 
cafe being a real menace to myself and others be- 
cause of its tripping-up proclivities. 

After dinner I started out to call on some 
friends to say good-bye. They had given their 
address on a piece of paper, written in Russian. 
I thought I remembered how my friend had pro- 



36 SURGEON GROW 

nounced it before he wrote it down and I walked 
boldly up to a bearded isvoscheek in front of the 
hotel and said, '^Kee-roosh, naya, ad-een-nat-set !" 
and seated myself in the cab. 

He clucked to his horses and started off and we 
drove for about an hour. Then he stopped and 
asked me something in Russian, which, of course, 
I couldn't answer. I handed him the slip of paper 
but he shook his head and handed it back to me., 
He couldn't read! I shook my head to indicate 
that I too was unable to read and he started off 
again at a walk, turning on the box from time to 
time to look at his strange fare — a Russian lieu- 
tenant-colonel who couldn't read ! 

Finally he saw a large policeman and drove up 
to him, saying something in Russian and pointing 
to me with his whip. I handed the paper to the 
policeman, who glanced at it, said something to 
the cabman and then burst into loud guffaws in 
which the cabman joined, both apparently over- 
come with mirth at the thought of a Russian offi- 
cer of my rank who couldn't even read; and when 
later on, as a result of the policeman's directions, 
the cabman finally landed me at my friends' house 
and I dismissed him, he was still grinning and 
chuckling to himself. 



PREPARING TO GO TO FRONT 37 

I never understood why the policeman hadn't 
arrested me as a suspicious character. 

The next day, Dr. Egbert accompanied me to 
the great, gloomy NIcholIavsky station. The 
waiting-room was filled with a crowd of soldiers 
and officers with their families and friends seeing 
them off for the front. 

Bearded, white-aproned nasielshicks , or porters, 
ran up, and hand-baggage was piled into their 
waiting arms. We procured a couple of these 
porters and were soon headed for our train, fol- 
lowing the porters, who staggered along under 
their seemingly impossible loads. 

At the train, we met Kalpaschnecoff. He had 
managed to secure a compartment for two on the 
crowded second-class coach. I had my little regu- 
lation officer's trunk, filled with my effects, and 
my folding cot and bedding roll with blankets 
and pillows, carried in and piled in our compart- 
ment. 

Then I went out on the platform where my 
dear old friend Dr. Egbert was standing. To me 
he represented the last link with life In America. 

"God bless you, boy!" he said, and there were 
tears in his eyes as he said It. There were tears 
In mine, too, and I suppose there were few on that 



38 SURGEON GROW 

platform whose eyes were dry, for it was a train 
running direct to the front and the passengers 
were all soldiers. How many of us would ever 
return ? 

As I stepped aboard, Dr. Egbert handed me a 
revolver in a soiled leather holster. 

''Here, Grow," he said, "take this: it is a good 
gun. I have had it for a long time. It will not 
fail you. I want you to have it — from me." 

I did not realize then what a friend that old 
thirty-eight was to prove, but it saved my life one 
blood-stained day on the Galician front — ^but more 
of that later on. 



CHAPTER V 

OFF TO THE FRONT 

A S we sat in our little compartment in the train 
before retiring, Col. Kalpaschnecoff ex- 
plained to me the working details of the Column 
to which I was to be attached. 

They had thirty-five horse-drawn ambulances, 
and equipment for three first-aid dressing stations. 
They worked in the First Division of the First 
Siberian Army Corps. Advanced dressing sta- 
tions were established in the trenches, and there 
was a larger station somewhat farther back where 
the ambulances could come up. This station was 
usually one-half to one mile from the firing line. 

The wounded were carried from the advance 
dressing station to the main dressing station by 
stretcher bearers and from there they were re- 
moved by horse ambulance to the division hos- 
pital about four miles back. 

The personnel consisted of i8o sanitars or 
orderlies, three students, and two aids to Kal- 

39 



40 • SURGEON GROW 

paschnecoff. The bulk of the reserve material 
and the heavy transport wagons, food, feed for 
horses, etc., were kept at a base situated about 
three or four miles from the line. 

"You will have charge of the advance dressing 
stations and the main dressing station where op- 
erations can be performed," declared the Colonel, 
"and two of the students will act as your assist- 
ants." 

Sleeping on the train was almost out of the 
question, but I suppose we did succeed in getting a 
cat-nap every now and again despite the poor 
travelling conditions. 

We had breakfast on the train, but In the mid- 
dle of the day we got off at one of the larger 
stations for dinner, as there was no provision on 
the train for regular meals. We rushed into the 
first-class waiting-room to the buffet where, at a 
counter, one could purchase zachowsky, similar to 
our hors-d'oeuvres, various smoked fish, or a din- 
ner of cabbage soup with sour cream, called shee, 
or cutlets of chopped beef with fried potatoes. 
Hastily selecting what we desired, we carried it to 
a table crowded with Russians and disposed of It 
as quickly as possible. 

The station was packed with a picturesque 



OFF TO THE FRONT 41 

crowd. There were bearded peasants in dirty 
sheepskin coats called shubas, with their feet 
wrapped in cloths over which was fitted a basket- 
work affair made from the bark of trees, fastened 
to the feet by strings which criss-crossed up the 
leg to just below the knee, where it was tied and 
served to hold the cloths in place. This is the 
usual footwear of the peasant class in the summer 
or when the weather is dry. 

Some, more fortunate, wore leather boots. Sol- 
diers were crowded together, smoking, sleeping 
on the floor, or talking in little groups, waiting 
for the train to take them back to the front from 
their furlough. Most of them were great hulk- 
ing fellows with bland, childlike faces, mostly 
blond types with brown-reddish hair and blue eyes, 
many wearing the orange and black ribbon and 
little silver cross of the Order of St. George, 
which is given only for conspicuous bravery under 
fire. 

There were many little family groups in which 
the women were red-eyed from weeping as a 
father or son or brother left them to take his place 
in the train. They were primitive and unashamed 
in their grief, and as the train pulled out from the 
station and the loved one swung aboard, their 



42 SURGEON GROW 

wailing rose above the grind of the car-wheels 
and the shrieking of the locomotive whistle, the 
women with aprons covering their faces swaying 
backward and forward in heart-rending agony. 

One little incident at this station made a deep 
impression upon me. I saw an old, blear-eyed 
woman, dirty beyond belief, bidding farewell to 
a fine young fellow who was evidently her son — 
more than likely her only son. The big fellow 
kissed her tenderly. He was a fine picture of vig- 
orous manhood as he stood there with his blond 
head bared while the old mother touched her fin- 
gers to his forehead and breast, making the sign 
of the cross. He stood on the step as the train 
gathered speed, while the old woman ran stiffly 
along the tracks in her heavy boots, the tears 
streaming down her weather-beaten old face call- 
ing out her blessing on the departing soldier-boy 
as she ran. 

The country near Petrograd Is sparsely settled. 
Indeed, that huge city with its sparkling golden 
domes reminds one of a gem set down in the midst 
of a great green table, for the surrounding coun- 
try is a flat expanse of green forest. 

Now, however, we were reaching a section 
where more villages were noticeable. They were 



OFF TO THE FRONT 43 

little gray groups of thatched houses built of logs, 
huddled together, surrounded by fields of rye and 
wheat and garden patches. Beyond always 
stretched the great dark pine forests, the white 
trunks of the birches showing ghost-like through 
gloomy cathedral aisles of pines, the sky steel 
gray and sullen. Over all hung a peculiar sad- 
ness, a sullenness of earth and sky, indescribable 
yet surely there. 

What Is It that produces the mysterious melan- 
choly of this great country — a mystery and melan- 
choly written deep In the character and In the 
person of all Its people? Is It the vast distances, 
the flatness of the landscape, the lonesomeness of 
the Northland, the gloom of the forests, the long, 
cold sunless winters that reflect on the peasant clad 
In his sheepskin coat, standing there In the field, a 
little lonesome human atom on the great far- 
stretching expanse of field and forest and swamp ? 
I do not know, but It Is there — as mysterious and 
yet as certain as life Itself. One feels It Instinc- 
tively. 

That night we retired early. We were thor- 
oughly tired out from the journey, with its long 
halts at the stations and the close, stuffy atmos- 
phere of the coach. 



44 SURGEON GROW 

The Russian cars, first-class, are fairly comfort- 
able although not very clean. The trains make 
only about twenty miles per hour on the average, 
but time Is no particular object In Russia and one 
becomes accustomed to the slowness of travel. 
The engines burn wood on most lines, huge piles 
of the fuel racked, split and ready to be thrown 
into the tender as needed being on hand at the 
stations. 

The next morning, at a station, we had coffee 
and bread and butter — the customary breakfast 
In Russia. We had time to take a short stroll on 
the station platform before the train pulled out. 
The day was crisp with a touch of autumn and 
the sun was shining brightly. Most of the pas- 
sengers were out stretching their legs. I noticed 
a number of them — soldiers, officers and civilians 
— running with tea-kettle in hand to a large boiler, 
and asked the Colonel what they were doing. 

"That's just plain water," he explained. *'Fire 
is kept burning under these water boilers, which 
are called kipetocks, day and night, at all stations. 
No unboiled water Is drunk In Russia. This ac- 
counts for the small amount of typhoid in this 
otherwise unsanitary land." 

The soldiers filled their kettles and dashed back 



OFF TO THE FRONT 45 

to the train, and as we walked through some of 
the second and third class cars, we saw them bring 
out little china teapots, cans of tea, sugar, and 
glasses, and proceed to brew tea which they drank 
from the glasses. 

*'Men always drink tea from glasses, women 
from cups," explained the Colonel. "It is consid- 
ered effeminate for a man to drink from a cup." 

At first the absence of ice-water or even cold 
water was very annoying to me, but I soon be- 
came accustomed to tea and before I left Russia 
I was consuming from ten to fifteen glasses of tea 
a day and never thought of drinking water. 

The tracks near the station were being repaired 
and I noticed that the work was done by women. 
They were mostly young or middle-aged — all 
great strong creatures with arms and hands and 
shoulders like men, swinging a pick or shovel or 
tamping bar without any apparent effort. Al- 
though they were bare-footed, they walked about 
over the rough stone ballast, carrying heavy ties, 
with apparent unconcern! They were supervised 
In their labors by a man who leaned Indolently 
against a telegraph pole smoking a cigarette. We 
noticed many such crews along the line. 

Eventually we arrived at Cesllvano, a station 



46 SURGEON GROW 

about thirty miles from our base. A large sector 
of the front is supplied from this station. Numer- 
ous sidings with cars laden with munitions, huge 
piles of material under canvas covers, stacks of 
baled hay as large as houses, and similar stores 
marked it as an important point. Wagon-loads 
knee-deep in mud converged to the loading plat- 
forms, and hundreds of little two-wheeled carts 
drawn by a single horse were coming and going, 
the horse's fetlock deep in sticky brown mud, toil- 
ing slowly along over roads which apparently 
meandered off through fields and forest — diverg- 
ing like the ribs of a fan over the vast landscape 
towards the west, where the trenches lie. 

We had to transfer our baggage to a little nar- 
row-gauge road which ran to a station a few miles 
from our base. A toy engine and several flat cars 
were standing there. Ivan, Kalpaschnecoff's or- 
derly or deenshick, who had met us at the station, 
carried our luggage. 

On the way we passed great rows of low build- 
ings which looked like barracks but which were 
really an immense evacuation hospital. 

I wa^ astonished at the terrible condition of 
the roads. We had to cross one which was a 
veritable sea of mud, up to our knees. When we 



I 



OFF TO THE FRONT 47 

reached the other side I noticed an old peasant In 
the middle of a similar morass of ooze, trying to 
get to terra iirma. He had a bundle in one hand 
and was holding up his dirty old sheepskin shuba 
in the other. 

Apparently his boots were securely anchored 
and he couldn't move. He let go his coat and 
attempted to pull his feet out by lugging at his 
boot straps. He tugged and tugged and finally 
lost his balance and to save himself plunged his 
arm into the mud up to the shoulder. He ex- 
tricated his arm, righted himself and stood help- 
lessly holding the dripping member out and star- 
ing at it as though he didn't recognize it. 

Several soldiers saw the old fellow's sad plight 
and waded out, forming a sort of human chain 
holding on to each other's hands. The peasant 
reached out to the one closest to him, they gave 
a heave and out he came — minus his boots ! The 
old man had no stockings on and he walked off 
In his bare feet, shaking his head disgustedly. 

*'ThIs is our muddy season," Kalpaschnecoff 
explained, rather unnecessarily. *'In the spring 
It is somewhat worse. At these times, no army 
can conduct an offensive in Russia because sup- 
plies cannot be brought up quickly enough.'* 



48 SURGEON GROW 

We boarded one of the little flat cars, in com- 
pany with other officers, and were presently chug- 
ging up hill and down dale along hastily laid ties, 
little grading having been done. Several times, 
indeed, the rails spread and we ran off the track. 
Then we would all get off and, by means of crow- 
bars, lift the little cars back and start off again. 

I did not know just how close to the front the 
railroad ran and kept looking at the clear blue sky 
far away on the horizon for the white puffs of 
shrapnel which I had heard about; but I saw noth- 
ing nor could I even hear the sound of a cannon. 

After numerous delays, we arrived at our sta- 
tion, a solitary house in the midst of a great dark 
forest of pines. Here we found a dilapidated 
victoria drawn by three horses awaiting us. 

As Kalpaschnecoff stood talking to the orderly 
who was in charge of the victoria, I heard a sound 
like distant thunder muttering on a hot afternoon 
in summer — far off in the west over the tops of 
the dark pine trees. Where we stood all was 
serene and peaceful, but that distant rumbling told 
me of the grim tragedy that was being enacted 
along the far borders of that dark forest down 
whose dismal aisles I vainly peered — gloomy, sun- 
less, mysterious. 



OFF TO THE FRONT 49 

*'We must be getting on, Grow," declared the 
Colonel, Interrupting my reverie; "It Is five miles 
to our base. Ivan will stay here with the baggage. 
We will send a wagon for It." 

The Colonel and I climbed In the old carriage, 
and off we went down the muddy road, lurching 
along, the horses straining at the traces. 

As the late autumn twilight fell, we passed a 
company of sappers returning from a reserve 
trench-digging operation. They plodded silently 
by In the gloom, shovels and picks over shoulder, 
cigarettes glowing, the pungent odor of Makorka 
— the cheap tobacco from the Caucasus which the 
Russian soldier Invariably smokes — permeating 
the crisp night air. 

We passed through a little village. Close to 
the road were log-houses with projecting thatched 
eaves and small windows, through which. In the 
dim candle light, we could see little groups of 
soldiers sitting around tables drinking tea, and 
we could hear the sounds of a concertina and a 
man's voice singing In a high sweet tenor a 
plaintive Russian romance. 

**That's a reserve regiment in billet," the Col- 
onel explained. 

We gradually ascended to higher ground, pass- 



so SURGEON GROW 

ing a column of transport wagons, the drivers of 
which yelled at their horses as they got mixed up 
in a bad spot. From the high ground we got a 
glimpse of black pine tops outlined against a green^ 
ish horizon where the sun had set, fading to the 
dark blue of the upper sky, a crescent moon ap- 
parently just balanced on the spire of a distant 
pine-tree, while far off a white rocket rose grace- 
fully into the air, hung poised a second, and fell 
from view behind the screening forest. It was a 
most impressive picture. 

"The positions are there," said the Colonel, 
pointing in the direction of the rocket. "It is 
about eight miles away. You can see the rockets 
at intervals all night long. When there Is any 
fighting, the trenches just spout them in a steady 
stream." 

Presently we entered another village and drew 
up before a house of log and thatch identical to 
hundreds I had seen. 

"Here we are," said the Colonel, as I followed 
him to the door; "this is our base." 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SPECTACLE IN THE FROZEN LAKE 

TXTE entered a small room, the greater portion 
of which seemed occupied by a great stove 
built of stone and mortar, a crude yet efficient af- 
fair, with a huge open grate over which could be 
seen glowing embers, and a great oven above of 
masonry. 

Seated In front of the fire, In the dim light of a 
tallow candle, was a very old peasant woman, with 
several dirty children pulling at her dress. 

"This house has been commandeered," the Col- 
onel explained to me. *'We have taken over the 
other room and the peasants occupy this one." 

I looked around for a bed, but the only furni- 
ture was a chair, a rough table, a bench, and the 
stove. 

"You're looking for the bed?" the Colonel 
asked, sensing my question. "That's on top of 
the stove. Russian peasants always sleep that way 
In winter." Sure enough, on top of the masonry 

51 



52 SURGEON GROW 

oven, just under the low ceiling, was a pile of 
dirty bedclothes. 

"How many live here?" I asked. 

"Four. This old woman, the two children — 
her grandchildren — and their mother." 

We passed into the next room. It was larger 
and lighted by a lamp. A rough pine table with 
benches around it, and two cots, with a chair or 
so, comprised the furniture. A young man arose 
from the table, laying down a book, as we entered. 

"Metia!" exclaimed the Colonel, addressing 
him, "I have brought an American doctor to work 
with you. Now you can improve your English!" 

Metia was a short, chubby fellow, with a round 
smiling face, long black hair, greatly disordered, 
and honest brown eyes, like those of a faithful 
dog. 

He came over smiling and shook hands with 
me. 

"I take great pleasure to see you," he said with 
a quaint accent. 

"Dimitre Paulovitch is one of my best stu- 
dents," said the Colonel. "He was in his third 
year at the Medical College at Saratoff when war 
broke out. He has been with me ever since. He 



SPECTACLE IN THE FROZEN LAKE 53 

will work with you. We call him Metia for 
short.'* 

MetIa then explained that he was In charge of 
the base for the present and had been going over 
the medical, surgical, and reserve supplies — taking 
stock, as It were. The Colonel's aids were away 
buying forage and supplies. The other two stu- 
dents were In the advance dressing station. 

"Everything has been rather quiet," he said. 
"Not very much work. Just sitting In the trenches 
— a little sniping and artillery *straffing' every day 
to vary the monotony." 

He went out to send a wagon for our baggage 
and to hurry up dinner. 

"A great boy that," said the Colonel. "As 
brave as a Hon. He has received the medal of 
St. George but he never wears it except when he 
must — when we are Inspected or at official din- 
ners. You will find him a great help." 

When Metia returned he said that dinner would 
follow In a few minutes. It consisted of a young 
sucking pig, brown and crisp, with cassia. Cas- 
sia Is steamed whole buckwheat, the outer husk 
being removed, and Is one of the staples In Rus- 
sia, taking the place of potatoes. The soldiers 
receive it at least once every day. Then we had 



54 SURGEON GROW 

kessll — a gelatinous substance made from potato 
flour and water and the extract of a red berry 
resembling the cranberry. It makes a delicious 
dessert. 

After dinner our baggage came. Ivan made 
up my cot beside the Colonel's and Metia's and 
we all turned in. 

As I lay there in the darkness, I could hear the 
occasional low rumble of artillery, which caused 
the windows of the room to rattle. 

The next morning the Colonel announced that 
we would have to call on the Commander of the 
Corps. 

The old victoria was at the door and we drove 
off toward the staff, which was located in a big 
manor house. This house had been deserted by 
its owners when the tide of battle had ebbed and 
flowed In this section. A month or two before, 
the Germans had followed up the Russians in their 
retreat from Warsaw right to this very locality, 
but later they had fallen back to their present 
positions which they had prepared. 

We passed two lakes around which desperate 
hand to hand fighting had taken place only a few 
weeks previously. The fields and meadows near 
the lakes were scarred by fresh lines of yellow 



SPECTACLE IN THE FROZEN LAKE 5; 

earth marking hastily constructed trenches, while 
shell-holes pitted the road on which we were 
travelling. 

The old manor house, a huge white affair of 
stone and plaster, was situated in a beautiful park. 
For some reason it had not suffered from artillery 
fire. 

As we drove up to the great door, two sentries 
with fixed bayonets came to attention. Inside, our 
coats and hats were taken by an orderly. Another 
led the way up a broad staircase through a bare 
hallway, the naked boards resounding under our 
feet, to a large room with many windows. A log 
fire was burning in an open fireplace and the white 
walls were covered with many-colored maps. A 
telephone switchboard and telegraph instrument 
on a table at which sat thr^e operators, gave the 
room a businesslike appearance. 

A tall officer, who had been seated at a table In 
the center of the room, rose as we entered and 
greeted us. 

Kalpaschnecoff introduced us and asked In Rus- 
sian to see the Commander of the Corps. The 
officer sent an orderly for the General, and In the 
meantime the chief of staff, a short, thick-set man 
of fifty-five, resplendent with crosses and medals, 



56 SURGEON GROW 

with a beetling forehead rising dome-like to a 
perfectly bald head and with a hawk-like nose, 
came in and was introduced. He spoke a little 
English and welcomed me quite cordially. 

The door opened and General Pleschcoff, com- 
mander of the First Siberian Army Corps, en- 
tered. Kalpaschnecoff had telegraphed him I was 
coming and as he advanced his face was wreathed 
in a smile and his little black eyes twinkled in a 
most friendly manner. 

He embraced Kalpaschnecoff, kissing him on 
both cheeks in real Russian fashion, and then 
shook hands with me. He made a cordial little 
speech in Russian, speaking no English, which the 
Colonel translated. 

"Come, be seated. Have a cigarette? Or- 
derly, the samovar!" he ordered, leading the way 
to a table and offering his large silver cigarette 
case covered with many monograms in gold. 

He was the most kindly, lovable chap I had 
met in a long time, and like every one else, as I 
found, I soon grew to love him. 

Sixty-five years old, with the physique of an 
athlete, of middle height, stubby thick black hair 
close cropped, his face seamed and lined by out- 



WEir^ 






\^^^^fi^^.^ 


- *• ' » ■ ii 


{'WMI 




T^^M^'.%a^ 


ii 



(ierman officers of a regiment of Prussian guards. The entire regiment 
was captured by the First Siberian Army Corps. 




Battle flag of the captured regiment of Prussian guards.^ This was an 

"iron cross regiment," decorated for bravery in action. Note the striped 

ribbon on the right of the flag, — the ribbon of the iron cross. 



SPECTACLE IN THE FROZEN LAKE 57 

door life, immaculate, erect, vigorous, he made an 
ideal commander. 

After the interview, on the way back to our 
base, Kalpaschnecoff told me how brilliantly the 
General had directed his Siberians through the 
desperate fighting before Warsaw, at Lodz, Pros- 
nitch, and in a dozen other great battles, how he 
had arrived at Warsaw with troops fresh from 
the trenches at Galicia and had led them straight 
from the trains into the midst of the conflict, turn- 
ing the tide of the second German drive on War- 
saw, saving the city and receiving the personal 
thanks of the Grand Duke Nicholas. 

After lunch, Kalpaschnecoff returned to the 
staff to transact some business, and Metia and I 
went out for a walk. 

He took me to the trench-scarred field between 
the two lakes we had passed that morning on our 
way to the staff. Close observation revealed how 
desperately the opposing armies had battled. The 
German trenches, hastily dug, without barbed 
wire, had been badly battered by the Russian artil- 
lery; and pieces of clothing, German helmets, dis- 
carded gas masks and empty cartridges littered 
the field where the fighting had occurred only 
twelve days before. 



58 SURGEON GROW 

We walked down to the nearest lake. The 
trenches ran right to Its edge. The bank was 
steep and overhanging. The last few nights had 
been cold and a clear sheet of Ice covered the lake. 

Metia slid down the bank to the water's edge 
and tested the Ice gingerly, for the lake was very 
deep, even close In shore. 

I saw him walking carefully out, looking down 
through the ice, which was like glass, and then 
suddenly a piercing cry rang out — a cry of intense 
horror and fright. 

I turned quickly, expecting to see Metia strug- 
gling In the water, but Instead I saw him standing 
on the ice, his head and body slightly bent for- 
ward, his hands clenched. He was looking down 
into the depths of the lake, his face blanched and 
an expression of extreme horror depicted on his 
features. 

What terror lurked beneath the surface? 

I stumbled down the bank, bringing down a 
shower of sod and earth, and walked quickly out 
to where Metia stood transfixed, not more than 
twelve feet from shore. 

^'Mister Grow, look! Look!'* he cried, as I 
reached his side. 

I looked at the spot he indicated. 



SPECTACLE IN THE FROZEN LAKE 59 

Great God! What a visage gazed up at me 
from under my feet, scarce two inches of crystal 
ice separating it from the air! I saw a face, 
bloated, with dull fishy eyes wide open, staring 
upward, the teeth exposed grinning, the hands like 
talons apparently trying to push through the glass- 
like cover of ice. A gray uniform covered the 
body, which was that of a German. 

Nearby, not six feet away, we found a similar 
horror, but this one had on the brown uniform of 
Russia. 

The two hideous relics in juxtaposition told 
their own tragic story. 

Twelve days before, these two had locked in 
mortal combat on that overhanging bank. They 
had stumbled and plunged into the deep icy water 
of the lake. With deadly persistence they had 
fought on, down in the deep water, had come up 
struggling once, twice, perhaps three or four times, 
only to disappear again — at last, for good ! Their 
fingers had been unlocked from each other's 
throats only by the great peace-maker — death; 
and then, in course of time, when nature had by 
her chemistry of decomposition caused certain 
gases to form in their carcasses, they had risen 
from their bed in the eel-grass to the surface, upon 



6o SURGEON GROW 

which a thin clear covering of ice had formed in 
the meantime, and there they were with their faces 
flattened against its restraining surface like those 
of children against the glass of a window in which 
is displayed something they yearn for I 

Metia quickly recovered his composure and we 
started silently back towards the village, and then 
we sent some of our orderHes out with axes and 
picks and shovels to release the two bodies and 
bury them on shore. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 

T7ARLY the next morning, Colonel Kalpasch- 
-■^ necoff, Metia and I started out to visit the 
advanced dressing stations in the trenches. 

We rode little Siberian ponies with Cossack 
saddles. At first, my saddle — a wooden frame 
with a high back over which a pillow about two 
inches thick had been strapped — felt rather un- 
comfortable, but I soon became accustomed to it. 

Our road led through a great expanse of fields, 
bare and desolate except for a few carrion crows 
—big fellows with gray wings and neck and black 
bodies, which walked stiffly about, their feathers 
fluffed out against the cold. 

We clattered through a little village, the hoofs 
of our ponies rattling on the frozen ground. 
There were a few soldiers moving about in the 
chill morning air, and soldiers' faces peered out 
at us from the windows of the houses. Then we 

6i 



62 SURGEON GROW 

entered the great dark pine forest through which 
the road ran some few miles. 

*'This was the hunting preserve of a very 
wealthy Polish count," explained the Colonel, 
pulling his horse up beside mine. "The staff of. 
the regiment and our main dressing station are in 
the big house in which he lived, which is only a 
mile from the trenches. It is fairly well screened 
by the forest but the Germans know its position 
exactly and they know we are using it, but they 
have never shelled it. I have an idea that they 
intend to advance soon and wish to keep the house 
intact to use themselves. Probably some old Ger- 
man general has his eye on it and is saving it for 
his own use.'* 

After several miles of forest, we came to a 
zemlanka or dug-out town. Here was billeted a 
regiment in reserve. The trees were thinned and 
sufficient were left to screen the "village" from 
hostile aeroplanes. Little could be seen above 
ground except mounds of earth partly concealed 
by pine boughs, and chimneys of mud and stones 
from which smoke ascended. 

It was hard to realize that In that underground 
community there were living 4,500 men. 

"We have not sufficient villages to provide bil- 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 63 

lets for our troops along the Russia front," the 
Colonel remarked, "but our men are able to take 
care of themselves in the way you see. We just 
turn them loose in a forest like this, and with picks 
and shovels and axes they build themselves very 
comfortable dug-outs in a couple of days." 

We dismounted, tied our horses to a tree, and 
went into one of the earth houses. We had to 
descend some five or six steps cut in the earth and 
then entered a door made of saplings nailed to- 
gether. It was rather dark inside but warm. 

As we entered a loud voice called sharply: 
^^SmeernaF^ — ^'Attention !" — and twenty men 
stood erect in the narrow aisle between the bunks 
on either side. 

"VolnaT — "At ease!" — ordered the Colonel, 
and the men relaxed. The Colonel explained that 
we wished to see their quarters, and they smilingly 
made way for us. 

The Russian soldier always carries with him a 
roll of rye straw, about two Inches thick, six feet 
long and two and a half wide, held together at 
the edges by cord woven into the straw. This 
produces a dry, comfortable pallet which, when 
unrolled, can be easily dried, or burned when 



64 SURGEON GROW 

soiled and a new one made, for each man makes 
his own. 

These pallets were thrown on the bunks, which 
were made of saplings covered with pine boughs. 
The dug-out was heated by a stove cleverly con- 
structed of brick and mud. As it was below the 
surface of the ground, the walls were of earth but 
the roof was of closely laid poles covered by a 
layer of pine boughs and then a thick layer of 
earth. 

After inspecting the dug-out, we remounted and 
rode on, coming finally to a large clearing in the 
center of which stood the great house where the 
regimental staff was quartered. 

As we dismounted, a battery nearby let go four 
shots in rapid succession, followed by the whiz of 
the shells as they sped away toward the German 
lines a mile distant. 

I had heard only faint artillery fire that morn- 
ing — just a distant muttering far to the north — 
and the sudden sharp bark of the battery at close 
quarters — they were concealed in the woods barely 
a hundred yards away — startled me and brought 
home the fact rather suddenly that I was getting 
near the front. 

We first called on the commander of the regi- 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 65 

ment, a short, bearded man, who was seated at a 
table In a large room partly dismantled but con- 
taining a fine grand piano and several large pieces 
of old furniture which had apparently proven too 
heavy to cart off in a hurry. 

Colonel Starik greeted me cordially and said he 
was glad I was to work in his regiment. 

We then visited our main dressing station lo- 
cated in what had been the lodge of the game- 
keeper. 

The student who was to work with me was a 
little chap, thin, wearing thick spectacles. He had 
a large generous smile. 

He did not speak English but requested Colonel 
Kalpaschnecoff to ask me to look at a German who 
had been wounded in ''No Man's Land" two 
nights before and who had been found early that 
morning by a Russian patrol lying half-dead from 
exposure and brought in. 

We entered a little room and as I opened the 
door my nostrils were assailed by an odor I knew 
only too well — the unmistakable sign of that dread 
condition known as gangrenous emphysema. 

The wounded German was a fine-looking man 
of about thirty-six. His great brown eyes looked 



66 SURGEON GROW 

into mine with the expression of a hunted animal. 
He was pallid and weak. 

I examined the wound. A rifle bullet had en- 
tered the thigh near the hip joint and emerged in 
the groin. The limb was badly discolored and 
swollen — the purplish area extending up Into the 
abdominal wall. When pressed on, the tissues 
gave forth a crackling sound caused by minute ac- 
cumulations of gas produced by the deadly bacillus. 

I turned to the student and he, seeing my ex- 
pression, led me from the room. I told him, 
through Metia, that the condition had extended 
too high In the abdomen for amputation. All we 
could do was to Incise the tissues with long free 
Incisions, drain off the horrid brown discharge and 
gas, and apply a moist dressing of hydrogen perox- 
ide, which was the treatment then in use in France. 

"There Isn^t a chance for him, however," I told 
Metia, "and you had better talk to him and find 
out where he lived, who he is, and whether we can 
do anything for him. He looks very refined — too 
intelligent for a private." 

Metia spoke German well and questioned the 
German. 

In a faint voice, he told us that he was German 
professor of mathematics In a little college town 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 67 

In Germany, was married and had three children. 
He had been drafted as a private and was about 
to be made a sergeant when he was wounded. 

"I was ordered by my commanding officer the 
other night," he said, *'to crawl out between the 
lines and approach the Russian trenches as closely 
as possible, where I was to listen for a suspected 
digging party which he feared were running out 
a sap to lay a. mine under our trenches. 

"I crawled up close to the Russian barbed wire, 
and lay there listening. Just after a rocket had 
flared up from your trenches, several shots were 
iired and I felt a sharp burning pain In my hip. 
I tried to move my leg but I couldn't. 

*T was bleeding badly and lay a long time wait- 
ing for death. I don't know how long. Finally 
the pain became worse and by a frantic effort I 
managed to crawl a few yards back toward our 
lines. My leg dragged on the ground and I 
crawled with my arms alone, a few feet at a time. 
It began to grow light In the east. I was so cold, 
so tired. In so much agony, that when I came to a 
shell-hole I crawled into It and fainted away. I 
regained consciousness several times that day and 
the next night, then I knew nothing until I woke 
up here. Do you think I will get well? I want 



68 SURGEON GROW 

to write to my wife. Can a letter be sent from 
here?" 

All this Metia got from him by patient ques- 
tioning, as he was too weak to talk much at a time, 

MetIa promised to write a letter at his dicta- 
tion after he had been fixed up a little by the 
American doctor he had just seen. 

He consented to the treatment I had suggested, 
so we got things ready, gave him some ether and 
operated. 

He reacted fairly well and that evening was 
able to dictate a pathetic letter to his wife and 
little ones. He told them that he would be well 
soon and that while he would be In prison In Rus- 
sia he did not mind that, as the Russians were 
good and kind to him. He would not be killed In 
battle anyway, and was sure to see them again 
after the war, which could not last much longer. 
He added that he felt sure of recovering because 
of the skill of an American surgeon who was at- 
tending him. 

The poor fellow lived two days. We kept him 
fairly comfortable with morphine, but the Infec- 
tion was too virulent and he succumbed. They 
burled him In the little cemetery, under the dark 
pines, a Russian priest officiating. All the staff 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 69 

attended and we stood with heads bared, while 
the cold wind sighed through the branches of the 
trees. A cross of wood with his name and regi- 
ment Inscribed on It was placed at his grave, where 
he sleeps In company with others who were once 
his foes. Metia wrote a second letter to the wife 
In the little town In Germany. 

The kindness which the Russian officers showed 
to this German during his last few days Is worth 
recording because It Is typical of the conduct of 
the Russian military throughout this whole war — 
at least for all I was ever able to observe to the 
contrary. The colonel commanding the regiment 
came to see the wounded German twice a day to 
Inquire If there was anything he wished, and many 
other officers would make similar visits every day. 

But to return to my visit to the regimental staff. 
The operation had kept me busy all the afternoon 
and we did not have time that day to go to the 
trenches where the two advanced dressing stations 
were. 

After dinner at the staff, an old artillery offi- 
cer, a colonel, long In the service, sat down at the 
piano and played some wonderful music, while the 
rest of us sat about smoking. 

Occasionally the windows would rattle and the 



70 SURGEON GROW 

old house vibrate as a battery nearby would send 
an evening message to the Germans, but the sound 
was more or less muffled by the thick walls. 

It was difficult to realize that within a mile lay 
the trenches filled with men striving to kill each 
other while we sat there listening to the sweet 
music of Mendelssohn and Rubinstein. 

Before retiring I walked out in front of the 
house. It was dark and still — not a breath of air 
stirring. Myriads of stars were sparkling coldly 
in the velvet pall of the heavens. Over the black 
tops of the pine forests, far away, toward the 
trenches, the sky suddenly lighted up with a 
ghostly quivering white glare as a trench rocket 
spht the darkness, flickered a moment, and was 
gone. Then came the crackle of rifle shots, faint 
and far off, and then silence again. 

I stood listening and watching for more rockets 
but none appeared and I turned to go in when 
suddenly the air was filled with a horrid screech- 
ing sound. Nearer and nearer it came from the 
black sky overhead, over the pines, increasing in 
intensity as it approached and its pitch growing 
shriller. I instinctively crouched, my muscles 
tense, my teeth clenched, waiting I knew not for 
what. Whatever it was seemed to be about to 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS 71 

land at my feet. Then came a red angry flash, 
followed by a terrific explosion, in the forest a 
hundred yards to my right, and a humming in the 
air like the sound a large nail used to make when 
I had thrown it as a child, and then the sound of 
falling fragments of earth and metal. A horse 
screamed over where the thing had burst. 

Kalpaschnecoff had strolled calmly out to where 
I stood, his cigarette glowing in the darkness. 

''The Boches are strafling our battery a bit,'* 
he said. "Here comes another!" 

Sure enough I could hear the same screaming 
sound as the big shell described its trajectory, then 
another flash and roar in the trees and the hum- 
ming of steel fragments in the air. 

This time I did not mind it so much. With the 
Colonel by my side, it was not so lonely, and I had 
a warning of what was coming. 

"Will our battery answer?" I asked. 

"Not now; they are sitting down snugly in their 
bomb-proofs. What would be the use of their 
exposing themselves? You say you heard a horse 
scream ? Likely they are bringing up ammunition 
and one of the cannon team was hit. They have 
cut him loose and driven off by this time, though, 
and the Germans won't catch another." 



72 SURGEON GKOW 

The Boches fired only those two shots. Evi- 
dently they had hoped to catch some one above 
ground or a supply column at work unloading 
shells, and the next morning we learned that the 
Colonel had been correct in his surmise — one of 
the lead horses of a caisson which was unloading 
shells had been hit by a fragment and died in a 
few moments, but the soldiers had hastily cut the 
traces and driven off before the second shell had 

i 

landed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 

^T^HAT night we slept on the floor in one of 
the rooms of the manor house, rolled up in 
blankets borrowed from officers of the staff, In 
front of a great log fire. 

The next morning a soldier came and Inquired 
for me. He was shown In and said he had been 
sent to me by the commander of the 8th Regiment 
by order of General Pleschcoff. He was to be my 
orderly, having been picked out of 50,000 men In 
the corps because he spoke English. He had lived 
two years In America, where he had worked In a 
Pittsburgh machine-shop. He had earned enough 
to return home, some six years before the war, 
and buy a little farm In the province of Omsk, 
eight hundred miles north of the Trans-Siberian 
Railroad. He was married and had two children. 
When war broke out he had been called to the 
colors, being a reservist, thirty-six years old. He 

73 



74 SURGEON GROW 

had been in the war since September, 19 14, and 
had not been home in the meantime. 

Mike remained my orderly until I left the army 
and I grew greatly attached to him. Of the great 
service he rendered me at the risk of his own life 
I shall write later. 

We started off for the trenches, riding part of 
the way, for the road was well screened by the 
forest. 

We passed the battery which had been fired on 
the previous evening and stopped a moment to 
look at the two big shell-holes. They were from 
twelve to fifteen feet across and about four feet 
deep. A soldier of the battery was cutting some 
kindling wood with his kinjal or curved dagger, 
which all the artillery men carry — a heavy knife 
with a wicked curved blade about two feet long. 
The trees round about were torn and splintered, 
one, about ten inches in diameter, having been 
completely severed by a jagged cut. 

A few yards off, lying on its side, its feet stick- 
ing up stiffly in the air, was a dead horse. I don't 
know why, but horses always seem to lie that way 
when killed. The soldier came over when he saw 
us looking at the horse and explained that it had 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 75 

been killed by the first shell of the night before 
but that none of the men were hurt. 

The guns of the battery were cleverly concealed 
in pits with a roof of saplings and sod covered 
with pine boughs. The shells were stored be- 
tween each gun In very deep bomb-proof shelters 
with great logs in the roof. There were appar- 
ently about six layers of logs and dirt. Eighteen 
steps led down to the entrance of these little store- 
houses. 

In back of the guns was a deep trench leading 
to some strongly built bomb-proof shelters where 
the men and officers lived. By means of this 
trench, they could approach the guns when being 
shelled without getting hurt. In back of the 
trench was the fire control, a heavy bomb-proof 
affair, with a telephone connecting with the ob- 
servation point far out in the advanced trenches in 
a particularly high spot or even in a tree top. 
Here the observing officer sits and watches the 
shells hit, makes the necessary corrections on the 
range and telephones back to the battery fire con- 
trol each time he desires it changed. The gunners 
scarcely ever see their objective or even the ex- 
plosion of their shells. These particular guns 



76 SURGEON GROW 

were firing over a forest at least three-quarters of 
a mile wide. 

**We are just beginning to get shells," remarked 
the Colonel. ''Those villainous traitors In Petro- 
grad, bought by the Germans, had the factory near 
Moscow working for nearly six months on shells 
just a little too large to go Into our guns. The blue- 
print patterns were a fraction of a millimeter off 
— just enough to make the shells useless. I refer 
to the Ministers of War and Munitions and their 
hirelings — especially that dastard Sukhomlinoff !" 

*'Ah! Russia Russia I poor Russia!" sighed 
Metla. "Here we had those fine little guns, so 
quick, twenty shots a minute, and no shells! and 
the German artillery — oh!" and he waved his 
arms and rolled his eyes, unable to express his dis- 
gust. 

We remounted and rode on for half a mile 
through beautiful pines to a bend in the road 
where we dismounted, tied our horses to trees, 
and proceeded on foot. 

The occasional crack of a rifle rang out In the 
crisp air, only now and then, not often. It re- 
minded me of the first day of the deer season In 
the northwoods at home — the cold, clear air, the 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 77 

odor of pines, and the occasional echoing reports, 
some far off, some near. 

The trees were thinning now and the light of 
an open space shone through ahead. 

We entered an approach trench, which extended 
forward in a zigzag. It was not very deep and 
the Colonel said: *'Keep your head down at the 
turns or you may be seen by a sniper!" 

We paused for a moment at a support trench 
built about 300 feet back of the first line trench. 
Rows of barbed-wIrCj criss-crossed from poles 
about four feet high driven in the ground, were in 
front of It. 

*'Here is our dressing-station," announced the 
Colonel, as he led the way to the entrance of a 
dug-out built in the wall of the trench. 

We descended some eight or ten steps. The 
roof was of logs and dirt. The door was a reg- 
ular door evidently taken off some partly de- 
stroyed house. Inside it was dark at first, but as 
my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I saw 
I was in a little room about eight feet wide by 
fifteen feet long. A small stove of brick and stone 
occupied one end. At the other was a crude table 
on which were bandages and instruments cov- 
ered by a white cloth. A stretcher served as an 



78 SURGEON GROW 

operating table, resting on four stakes driven in 
the earth floor, a candle stuck in the neck of a 
bottle serving for light. There were several 
benches, and near the stove a cot from which 
rose a very dishevelled youth. 

Kalpaschnecoff introduced him as Nicholl Alex- 
androvitch. He was one of the students. He was 
a tall, gangling fellow, with a large head, slightly 
stooping shoulders, and a lean neck which did not 
seem strong enough to support the massive 
cranium. 

**Skuchna esdes — It is tiresome here," he said. 
"No work — only three wounded yesterday. We 
have another station like this a quarter of a mile 
to the right. You will visit both every day and 
also the main station back at the big house. I 
will have your stuff sent out to-day from the base. 
You can live here or at the main station, as you 
wish. It is more comfortable back there, how- 
ever." 

"Thanks," I replied; "I will have my things 
brought here. There is room for another cot 
and I want to learn this trench-life and live It also, 
and, if you don^t mind, I'll stay right here." 

"As you wish," said the Colonel. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 79 

"Meester is not afraid of the German granata 
(shells)," said Metia. 

"Yes, I am; very much afraid," I admitted. 
*'That's why I'm staying. I want to get used to 
them." 

We all walked down the approach-trench to the 
fire-trench. 

"Keep very quiet here," warned the Colonel. 
"The German trenches are only seventy-five 
meters distant and they always listen for any noise 
or movement In our trenches. If they hear any- 
thing they send over a grenade from a trench 
mortar or some shells from the artillery, hoping 
to catch some one exposed." 

Spee! A ricochet sang over our heads and I 
ducked as it passed by. It had such a nasty sound 
I could not help dodging, and I felt like a fool 
afterwards, resolving not to move a muscle the 
next time. 

Bang! crashed a rifle, right at my elbow around 
the corner of the parapet as we slipped into a fire 
trench. Again I ducked involuntarily, and re- 
solved again to control my jerky nerves. 

As I walked on I felt uncomfortably tall and 
was sure the top of my head was above the trench. 
I was surprised at the small number of men on 



8o SURGEON GROW 

duty— just one to each sector. The trenches are 
not dug in a straight line but are like the design 
we used to call the "walls of Troy," the inter- 
posed squares of earth limiting the explosive and 
killing effects of a shell to the particular section 
in which it falls. If the trenches were straight, 
a direct hit — that is, a shell falling in the trench 
— would kill and wound men a hundred yards up 
and down the trench. There were about eight 
loopholes to each sector of the fire-trench, then a 
square-cut elbow around a solid block of earth 
about eight feet across, called a traverse, then 
another loopholed sector, and so on. 

The Russian trenches have a head cover of 
timber and dirt as protection against shrapnel. 
They don't use many sand-bags for loopholing 
but make a pyramidal shaped box of wood about 
three feet long, open at both ends, with a 6-inch 
square opening at the small end and a 2j^ feet 
by 6-inch opening at the large end. This is laid 
on the earth, large end toward the trench, and 
then it is covered with dirt and the head cover 
constructed. This gives a loophole with plenty 
of elbow-room to move a rifle about, a good place 
to rest it on, and a 6-inch opening at the far end 
to stick the end of the gun through. A fire-step 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 81 

Is made on the side of the trench on which the 
soldier stands while firing and which brings his 
face level with the loophole. 

You feel quite lonely and Isolated when In one 
of these little sectors of fire-trench. This day 
there was only one soldier to a sector although 
not eighty yards away was an enemy anxious to 
attack. It seemed as If all they had to do was to 
walk over and take us all prisoners. 

Then I noticed the funk-holes, as they are 
called on the English front. They are small ex- 
cavated rooms in the side of the trench, In each 
of which were crowded eight or ten soldiers lying 
about, sleeping, smoking, or talking in low tones. 
In many, through the open passage-way could be 
seen charcoal braziers filled with glowing embers 
— the braziers consisting of buckets, powder-cans 
or large meat tins in which holes had been 
punched. 

We stopped at one of the empty loopholes and 
peered out over the barbed wire across No Man's 
Land toward the German trenches. All I could 
see of the German positions was a haze of tan- 
gled wire and crooked stakes and a ridge of earth 
which was sod-covered In some places and bare 
in others. Although the German trenches were 



82 SURGEON GROW 

only about seventy-five yards away, no loopholes 
could be seen and there was not a sign of life 
nor a moving thing. It looked for all the world 
like a field in which great ground moles had been 
digging and tunneling and, growing tired of their 
labors, had wandered off. 

The opposing hnes faced each other across a 
shallow ravine, ours right on the edge of the forest. 
The Germans had about three hundred yards of 
open field in back of their first line, then a dense 
forest — black and mysterious. 

The striking thing to me was the entire absence 
of anything to shoot at, and yet snipers were con- 
stantly at work in our trenches and every minute 
or two a shot would ring out. The Germans were 
equally active and the crack of their bullets as 
they landed in the trees and the spee of their 
ricochets were frequently heard. The trees were 
simply torn to pieces by shells and bullets and 
presented a very bedraggled and skeleton-like ap- 
pearance. 

Kalpaschnecoff walked up to a little soldier who 
was gazing intently out of his loophole, firing 
away at something every couple of minutes. Scat- 
tered about his feet was a considerable pile of 
empty brass cartridges. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 83 

**Well, Galoopchick (little dove)'' — they al- 
ways call the soldiers and peasants that — "Galoop- 
chick, what are you firing at?" 

"Your Excellency, I have been at this loophole 
several hours every day for eight days," the little 
dove, who was certainly a very much soiled little 
dove, his face blackened from the smoke and coal 
of a brazier, replied. "Every few minutes, all the 
time I am here, a German over there waves a 
white flag. I shoot every time he waves that flag 
and still he waves it. Look now! Your Excel- 
lency will see it there — right along the top of my 
rifle barrel. I have pointed it right at the white 
flag!" 

Kalpaschnecoff looked, squinting along the bar- 
rel of the rifle. Then he pulled out a pair of field 
binoculars and gazed long and hard. Finally he 
turned to me and handed me the glasses. I looked, 
and sure enough something w^hite was moving; it 
moved to and fro for a minute and then stopped. 

"Looks to me like a piece of old paper partly 
buried in the parapet of their trenches," I said. 

"I think you are right," the Colonel agreed, and 
then turning to the soldier: "There, little dove, 
you are a faithful one to fire so often and care- 
fully at what you thought was a German waving 



84 SURGEON GROW 

a flag, but It isn't a flag; It's a paper moving In the 
wind. Don't bother about It !" 

The little fellow looked unconvinced as we 
moved on but, of course, he obeyed orders. 

' "They are like children," the Colonel com- 
mented. ''As a matter of fact, though, a man 
standing for hours gazing at one object can hyp- 
notize himself Into believing almost anything. 
This trench warfare produces some funny nerve 
conditions. That soldier probably thinks the Ger- 
mans are as tired of fighting as he Is and are wav- 
ing flags of truce. There's an observation point 
on that knoll," pointing to a rise of ground ahead; 
"we'll go and have a look." 

The trench sloped gently upward and presently 
we came to a strongly built bomb-proof on the very 
highest part. All the trees had been torn down by 
shell-fire and the top of the little hill was torn 
and scarred. Two periscopes peeped up through 
holes In the thick roof of the dug-out. An officer 
was sitting at one, his eye glued to the eye-piece, 
slowly turning the milled screw-head which turned 
the periscope and changed its visual field. 

"Be In good health. Lieutenant!" the Colonel 
greeted. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 85 

**Hello, Andrea Ivanovltch!" he replied. "What 
brings you here?" 

The Colonel explained that he was showing me 
around, and introduced me to Lieut. Muhanoff. 

The Lieutenant was a man of thirty-six but 
looked older. His face was covered with a scrag- 
gly brown beard and his near-sighted, humorous 
eyes peered through gold-rimmed spectacles. He 
looked more like a good-natured schoolmaster 
than a soldier. 

"He speaks English," said Kalpaschnecoff, "but 
he's bashful and pretends he doesn't. Come on 
now, show the American how well you do !" 

"I speak a very, very little — very badly. I 
have been to your America. Two months I was 
there. Yes, San Francisco, New York — ah, New 
York ! I thought I should go mad — so much noise 
and confusion. I was glad to get back to dear 
Russia!" and he smiled apologetically. 

"You do very well indeed," I replied, "and you 
must come to see me. I will be living in the dress- 
ing-station and will be glad to talk to some one 
who has been in America." 

"I am commanding the scouts, doing work in 
No Man's Land," he declared. "I am busy every 
night but when I have time I will come." 



86 SURGEON GROW 

I told him I should like to go with him on some 
of his expeditions, and he promised to take me. 
"It Is very dangerous, however," he added, "out 
there between the lines." 

That was the beginning of a friendship which 
lasted almost a year — until one terrible day in 
September, 191 6, when he was killed. 

"I am about to have the artillery destroy that 
old brick building near the German lines. My 
scouts think they are using It as an observation 
point. The chimney Is still standing and it is quite 
high. Take a look!" Muhanoff invited. 

I looked through the periscope. The trench 
lines were farther apart here, possibly three hun- 
dred yards separating them. In front of the Ger- 
man position, partly demolished, was an old brick 
building, the chimney towering above the ruined 
walls. 

Muhanoff turned to an artillery officer, who was 
poring over a map under a celluloid cover with 
lines marking it off into squares. 

"All ready. Lieutenant," he said to the officer. 

"All ready, sir," the artillery-man repeated, and 
then he called off a couple of numbers to a soldier 
seated at a field telephone which communicated 
with the battery. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 87 

The soldier repeated the numbers. 

*'Now watch through the periscope," said the 
Lieutenant, addressing me. 

I turned the instrument to the building and wait- 
ed. A minute, maybe two, passed; then a 
whistling sound In the air overhead and a fountain 
of dirt and yellow, brown and white smoke shot up 
just In front of the building, a few yards from the 
wall, as the high explosive shell struck with a loud 
crash. 

The artillery-man was watching through anoth- 
er periscope. He turned to the soldier and 
called off several more numbers. They were re- 
peated over the telephone and after another 
brief wait another shot was fired. This time It 
scored a perfect hit and a large portion of the 
wall crumbled down and a shower of bricks, mor- 
tar and smoke spurted up. 

As I looked I saw through the settling haze of 
dust a movement as of the glint of sunshine on 
some bright metal. The artillery-man saw It too, 
for I heard him sharply cry: ''Shrapnel!" and 
rattle off some more figures hurriedly. 

''That last one brought them out!" he cried ex- 
citedly, his eyes gleaming. "They have an ap- 
proach-trench running from their fire-trench out 



88 SURGEON GROW 

to those ruins. They are crawling back to their 
trench through it. They didn't stoop enough in 
their hurry and I saw them move. Quick now 
with the battery and we'll catch them!" he mut- 
tered to himself. 

Another screeching and a white cotton-like puff 
of smoke appeared a hundred feet over the ruins 
and exploded with a sharp barking report, and the 
shrapnel scattered its i8o bullets on the ground 
between the ruins and the German trenches 
searching out those scurrying Boches running for 
their lives. Whether any of them were hit, it was, 
of course, impossible for us to tell. 

He continued pounding away at the old build- 
ing with high explosives until the chimney and 
walls were all flattened out and nothing remained 
but a heap of bricks. 

"I wonder if that shrapnel caught them in 
time?" he murmured as he folded up his map, lit 
a cigarette, and walked out. 

As we were going back up the trench toward 
the dressing station, we turned a corner Into a 
traverse at a point where the lines approach each 
other closely. 

"Look out!" yelled the Colonel, dodging back 
against the wall of the trench and crouching there. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 89 

As I scrambled back I caught a glimpse out of the 
corner of my eye of an oblong object hurtling 
down into the trench, turning end over end, from 
the direction of the German lines. 

A terrific explosion occurred in the fire sector 
we were just about to enter. A mass of earth 
and wood flew up high in the air and showered 
down on us, covering us with dirt. 

"A big grenade from a trench mortar," said 
the Colonel, brushing himself off. "Fortunately 
they come slow enough to be seen in the day- 
time." 

The block of earth separating the two fire sec- 
tors had protected us, but the poor fellow at watch 
in the next sector had not fared so fortunately. 
We found him badly mangled, half buried in earth 
and timber from the caved-in parapet. He was 
still breathing as I stooped over him, but died be- 
fore we could get him out from under the debris 
which was piled on his lower extremities. His 
head had been crushed like an eggshell by a huge 
fragment of the grenade. 

Several more were fired at our trench a hundred 
yards lower down, but did no damage, as they 
were not direct hits. 

The soldiers in the funk-holes nearby crawled 



90 SURGEON GROW 

out and picked up their fallen comrade by the feet 
and arms and carried him off to an approach- 
trench, his head hanging back and bumping on the 
uneven ground. Another posted himself at a 
loophole which had not been destroyed by the 
grenade. Others started to patch up the parapet 
under the direction of an officer. There was no 
excitement. It was all taken as a matter of course. 
In a few minutes everything was as before In that 
sector except for a hole In the trench parapet, a 
few dark stains on the earth, and a different sol- 
dier staring out across No Man's Land. 

We went back to our dressing station. As we 
entered the approach-trench we had to step over a 
huddled object covered with a torn brown over- 
coat and we met two of our stretcher-bearers ap- 
proaching with a rolled-up stretcher. To-morrow 
a new wooden cross would appear back In the for- 
est taking Its place among thousands of others al- 
ready there. 

At the dressing station we found that an orderly 
had just brought In our dinner. It was carried in 
porcelain dishes racked or nested together one 
above the other and held by a wire. It was quite 
hot and consisted of hot cabbage soup, cutlets of 
chopped beef, fried potatoes and stewed dried 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 91 

fruit. Tea was made in a little samovar which 
NIcholi Alexandrovitch always kept with him even 
here in the trenches. 

We seated ourselves on blocks of wood and 
crude benches, using the stretcher for a table. It 
was covered with a clean muslin cloth, which I was 
glad of, as I had noticed several suspicious brown- 
ish-red stains on the canvas earher in the day. 
We ate from tin plates and had real knives and 
forks and glass tumblers for our tea. 

The soldiers have a tin cup, a small copper pail 
holding about a quart for their soup, and a large 
wooden spoon which they carry stuck in their boot- 
leg. The bucket and cup are attached to their 
belt on the march. 

Mike, my new orderly, arrived late in the after- 
noon with my cot and luggage. The Colonel, 
Metia and Lieutenant Muhanoff left, and I was 
alone with Nicholi Alexandrovitch, who could 
speak no Enghsh. I had been plugging away 
steadily with my Russian and could understand 
an ordinary conversation but spoke with difficulty. 
However, we got along fairly well, using Mike 
when we got into difficulty or resorting to the sign 
language. 

It was snug that night down there in the dug- 



92 SURGEON GROW 

out. The occasional sound of artillery was muf- 
fled by the thick walls. 

About eleven o'clock, Nicholi prepared to re- 
tire. He stood a long time with the covers of his 
cot turned down leaning over with a candle in 
his hand. Long and intently he scrutinized it, the 
ritual lasting for about ten minutes, and then he 
blew out the candle and crawled into bed. I sup- 
posed It some strange Russian religious ceremony 
and made no comment. 

After a while I too turned in. It was quiet and 
dark in the dug-out and I soon became drowsy. 
Just as I was faUing asleep, I felt an itchy spot 
just below the knee. I rubbed it with the other 
leg and at once developed a similar condition on 
the ankle of that leg. I concluded that I had 
eaten something that day which had given me 
hives. Another and another place started, until 
I seemed to have half a hundred of them, and 
as I squirmed and tossed about I figured that I 
must be spotted like a leopard and I got out of 
bed to see. 

I got a candle and lighted it and an examination 
of my body revealed a typical attack of hives — a 
very nasty one. 



IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES 93 

A chuckle, somewhat muffled by the bedclothes, 
sounded from the student's end of the room. 

^^Blockie, Meester?" inquired a sleepy voice. 

"No, hives — urticaria," I replied, giving the 
medical name. 

*'No, no, Meester; blockieT* insisted the stu- 
dent. 

*'What in the devil are hlocktef I asked. 

"I will show you," and he shuffled over to my 
cot, took the candle and searched in my bed. Pres- 
ently he made a dive at something and presented 
me with a tiny black mite held between his fore- 
finger and thumb — a little flea. 

His strange maneuver before retiring was no 
longer a mystery to me — it was one I performed 
or Mike performed for me every night for the 
next eighteen months! 

Nicholi produced some powder from his cot 
and dusted it over my bed and between the cov- 
ers, after searching around and finding three more 
fleas. 

*'Now, Meester can sleep," he said; and I did 
— very well. 

A great blessing is good Insect powder on the 
Russian front! 



CHAPTER IX 



I GO "over the top" 



■"^TEXT morning, while we were having our 
•^ ^ tea piping hot from Nicholi's samovar, the 
stretcher-bearers brought in a badly wounded sol- 
dier. 

He was covered with a blanket and as they 
placed him on the stretcher I was amazed at his 
strange appearance. He was no longer than a 
child and yet his arms were of the average length 
and his shoulders were broad! 

As he lay under the blood-soaked blanket, he 
moaned feebly. His face was ghastly, a peculiar 
greenish white. 

As an orderly lifted the blanket, the poor fellow 
cried out: 

"My feet ! My feet ! My God, don't touch my 
feet!'* 

I gazed horror-stricken as the blanket was re- 
moved and I saw why he had looked so small. 
There were nO feet! Neither were there any 

94 



I GO 'OVER THE TOP" 95 

legs to speak of — just stumps bound In blood- 
soaked bandages. 

*'A high explosive shell dropped In the trench 
near him and exploded," one of the orderlies, 
with blanched face, explained to me In a whisper. 
"A large fragment struck him between the knee 
and the hip, carrying away both legs. One leg 
hung by a small strip of skin, Excellency, but I 
cut It off with my knife, for it was difficult to 
carry him with It swinging about before we got 
him on the stretcher." 

The orderlies had applied tourniquets, partially 
checking the hemorrhage. 

"Oh! my feet, why do they pain so? Please 
don't touch them, don't touch them !" he pleaded. 

I gave him a hypodermic of morphine for the 
pain and a pint of hot salt solution in one of the 
veins of his arm, for he had lost much blood. 

I tied off the arteries and veins with cat-gut to 
prevent further hemorrhage and then took off the 
tourniquets. I then cleaned up the stumps as well 
as I could, applied iodine to the raw surfaces 
and put on clean bandages, during all of which he 
complained bitterly of the pain in his feet — a 
phenomenon due, of course, to the fact that the 
nerves which had been severed by the amputation 



96 SURGEON GROW 

were conveying an erroneous message to the poor 
fellow's brain. 

When he had reacted sufficiently, we placed 
him in one of our little horse ambulances, which 
were kept hidden in the forest a few hundred 
yards back of the trenches, and started him on 
his journey to the division hospital, which was 
located some four miles farther back. As the 
ambulance slowly rattled off over the rough frozen 
road, the poor fellow was still crying: "My feet! 
My feet! How they pain!" 

That afternoon, as Nicholi and I were having 
tea in our dug-out, the door opened and Lieutenant 
Muhanoff entered. He brushed the powdery snow 
from his sheepskin coat and walked over to the 
stove to warm his hands. It was only three-thirty 
o'clock in the afternoon but already the short 
Russian day was drawing to a close and we had a 
candle lighted in the dug-out. 

"It will be a thick night — four inches of snow 
have fallen already," he said. "It will be a fine 
dark night for the little affair we've planned!" 

"What little affair?" I asked. 

"Well, we're going to give the Germans a raid- 
ing party. It won't amount to much — just two 
companies — about four hundred men — will go 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 97 

over. The artillery will put up a barrage on their 
communication trenches and on a certain sector of 
their first-line trenches which form a salient. An 
intense fire will be concentrated at the same time 
on the barbed wire at certain points. This prepa- 
ration will last about an hour, and then, when the 
fire on the wire and the first-line lifts, we will go 
over and our artillery will then fire on the com- 
munication trenches and the German batteries to 
prevent the Germans from escaping and their 
artillery from putting up a barrage on us." 

I showed him that I was very much interested 
in the modus operandi and he gave me further 
details. 

*'Well only remain in the German trenches 
about ^Yt minutes, but we hope to take some pris- 
oners and possibly some machine guns. The main 
object, I understand, Is to prevent the Germans 
from sending troops north to the Riga-Dvinsk 
front where there is some heavy fighting. If you 
worry them by raids at various points on the line 
they become nervous, fearing larger attacks, and 
they won't weaken their line by transferring troops 
to the region where they are really needed." 

The Lieutenant explained the proposed plan 
to me as simply as possible, aware that I knew 



98 SURGEON GROW 

nothing of the technical end of the game. He 
drew a rough map to show the salient we were to 
attack and the communication trenches where they 
hoped to cut the Germans off if they attempted 
to escape. 

"I should like very much to go over with you," 
I said, hardly hoping that I would be allowed to 
do so. 

"You may if you want to,** he replied; *'but you 
must remember that it is very dangerous work. 
We will take stretcher-bearers with us to bring 
the wounded back and, if you want to, you may 
go with them. Have you a white operating 
gown?" 

I reached for my gown which was hanging on 
a hook. 

"That's very good. We're all going to wear 
white on account of the snow. It will make us 
invisible to the German machine gun and rifle 
men. Put a pillow-case over your head and you'll 
do fine!" 

I snatched a pillow-case from the cot and put it 
on. 

"You look like a cowled monk," Muhanoff 
commented; "but it will serve first-rate. I will 
call for you at eight-twenty. We'll go into the 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 99 

first line at that time and watch the artillery prepa- 
rations, which starts at eight forty-five, and at 
nine forty-five we will attack. Have you a good 
revolver? All right, be prepared at eight-twenty!" 

He closed the door and was gone. 

It was very still there In the dug-out. NIcholi 
had gone out Immediately after tea to visit the 
other dressing-station and I was all alone. The 
candle cast flickering shadows on the earthen wall. 
A coal popped In the stove and It sounded to me 
like a rifle-shot! 

A dug-out with good thick walls and a tightly 
closed door Is a very dismal sort of place — more 
like a tomb than anything else, with the smell of 
fresh earth and the dampness. It Is especially so 
when youVe alone. I felt like a child when left 
alone In the dark. 

It occurred to me that I was doing a very fool- 
ish thing — sticking my nose Into a dangerous prop- 
osition like this which really didn't concern me In 
the least. A little cold shiver ran up and down my 
spine. I wondered If the revolver which Dr. Eg- 
bert had given me really was all right. I hadn't 
tried it out and possibly the blamed thing wouldn't 
work at all or the cartridges were stale or the 
firing pin gummed up or something. I took It 



loo SURGEON GROW 

down and examined it and as I opened It up my 
hand shook. I was frankly In a blue funk! 

I looked at my wrist-watch — 6 :34 — three hours 
and eleven minutes to go ! I opened the door and 
let In an Icy blast and a flying swirl of snow. 

"What Is the matter! Is Meester so warm he 
keeps the door open?" exclaimed NIcholI, step- 
ping In the open door a moment later, a look of 
astonishment on his red frosty face at the pile of 
snow which had blown in and the frigid tempera- 
ture of the dug-out. 

"Oh, no," I replied; *'I just wanted to give it a 
little airing. You can close it now; it is a bit 
chilly!" 

A great deal might happen in three hours and 
eight minutes. The general might call the little 
party off or I might stumble In the trench in the 
dark and break a leg. One can never tell. The 
reflection made me feel a little better. 

The orderly brought our dinner and after din-' 
ner we had tea. I drank five or six glasses, and 
my spirits were considerably brightened. I was 
in for it now and there was nothing to do but 
to go through with It. 

Promptly at eight-twenty, Lieutenant Muhanoff 
came in, his scraggly beard plastered with snow 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" loi 

and ice. He stood by the stove combing it out 
with his fingers. He looked like a be-spectacled, 
bearded imitation of a stage ghost, with his white 
gown and peeked head covering. 

In his hand he held two peculiar objects which 
looked like tomato cans with long handles on 
them, and there were two more in his belt, which 
he wore outside his white coat. 

"They are hand grenades," he explained, ob- 
serving me looking at them. "They are very use- 
ful to have at times, especially if you are not a 
dead shot with a revolver. One of these things 
will usually get anything within a radius of five 
meters when it explodes. You had better take 
these two with you." 

He showed me how to insert the capsule, as he 
called it, and how to throw it, retaining in my 
hand the little metal ring which fitted over the 
handle. 

"When you throw It, hold on to the ring and 
let the bomb go, slipping the ring off the handle," 
he said. "This releases the spring which starts 
the time fuse. The time fuse burns four seconds 
after the ring is pulled off and then the bomb ex- 
plodes. It is well to drop flat on the ground when 
you throw it, especially if It does not fall In a 



102 SURGEON GROW 

trench — ^you'll be less apt to be hit by fragments.*' 

I took one of the things gingerly in my hand. 

"Any danger of it going off from a jar?" I 
asked. 

"No, not unless you knock the ring off." 

I determined to be very gentle and to keep my 
hand on those rings in going over the rough spots. 

"You can carry a bomb in your right hand and 
your revolver in your left," said the Lieutenant, 
as I put on my white coat and the pillow-slip over 
my head. He strapped the other bomb in its shng 
on my belt outside the coat. As we started out, 
Nicholi solemnly shook hands with both of us, 
wishing us good luck. 

As I stepped out of the door, I thought hell 
had been turned loose. 

The air was full of a variety of sounds running 
the scale from a screech to the noise an express 
train makes when going over a trestle while you 
are standing underneath. 

"The high-pitched scream is from the three- 
inch shells, and the deep roar is from the six-inch 
howitzer shells," the Lieutenant shouted in my 
ear. "Hurry! This way!" he said, slipping quick- 
ly down an approach-trench. "The Boches will 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 103 

start to reply In a minute and we must get under 
cover!" 

The roar of the artillery was terrific. 

Through the tree-trunks ahead and In the sky 
above their black tops, I could see the flickering 
white flare of a steady stream of rockets from the 
German trenches. 

"We've got them throwing up their fire-works !" 
the Lieutenant shouted as we stumbled on. 

It was snowing thickly and the flickering rockets 
produced peculiar diffused light effects, indistinct 
yet very powerful. 

In the first line, we joined hundreds of other 
white ghosts. Some had glowing cigarettes in 
their mouths, and the pungent smell of makorka, 
the vile tobacco they smoke, was in the air. 

They stood about, leaning against the trench 
parapet, talking in subdued voices in little groups. 
Some sat on the fire-step alone and silent with 
white sheeted head bowed, waiting for the signal 
to go over the top. A very few were laughing 
and joking, but it was nervous laughter and some 
peered intently out over No Man's Land through 
the loopholes. Those who were not going to take 
part In the raid but were to remain In the trenches 
acting as reserves did not have on the white coats. 



104 SURGEON GROW 

"Come here and look through the loophole!" 
said the Lieutenant In my ear. 

As I started toward him I heard shells which 
had a different sound from ours — a sound which 
rose gradually In pitch as though near the end of 
a song. They were German shells. It was their 
reply to our bombardment and several times I 
saw a red flash through the loophole, accompanied 
by a close stunning explosion which sounded as if 
limbs of trees and things were falling around us. 

At the culmination of a particularly vicious 
whiz, a terrific crash with a red flash of light oc- 
curred about sixty feet down the trench, apparent- 
ly right on the parapet. The ground shook and 
we were covered with a shower of dirt. 

"They are setting up their barrage," the Lieu- 
tenant explained. "We'll have to go through it. 
Notice the next time a rocket goes up how our 
barbed-wire Is cut so as to produce lanes through 
which we will go after we leap over the parapet." 
And then turning to his orderly, he ordered: "Go 
and find Ivan and bring him here !" 

The orderly returned In a minute with a *blg 
burly fellow who saluted and stood at attention. 

"This is Ivan," Introduced the Lieutenant. "He 
is the under-ofEcer commanding the stretcher- 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 105 

bearers of this company. You will go with him 
and when he returns, return with him!'* 

Then he turned to Ivan. 

"Ivan," he said, "take the American doctor 
with you and take good care of him. Bring him 
back safe or I'll skin you alive I" 

*^Tak tochena — that surely, your Excellency," 
said Ivan, saluting. 

I noticed that Ivan was entirely unarmed, car- 
rying only a first aid kit slung over his shoulder. 
In fact, none of the stretcher-bearers were armed, 
and I realized what a self-sacrificing job theirs 
was — all take and no give. If a fellow Is armed 
he feels much better when going Into an attack, 
but the poor stretcher-bearer cannot think of his 
own safety at all. They can't even keep under 
cover by lying In shell-holes on the ground but 
must keep on carrying the wounded back just as 
though a couple of dozen machine-guns were not 
spraying the air full of death right behind them. 

Ivan leaned against the trench parapet and lit 
a cigarette, and in the glow of the match which 
he held in his cupped hand to shield it from the 
wind I got a good glimpse of his face. He had 
a great red beard, fan-shaped like the tail of a 
grouse and matted with snow, a red nose and 



io6 SURGEON GROW 

cheeks and little deep-set gray eyes with bushy 
red eyebrows, peering out from under his white 
monkish head covering. It is queer how these 
little unimportant things impress you even when 
your mind is centered on bigger matters, and I can 
recall that kindly, homely peasant face now after 
two years as plainly as though it were yesterday, 
although I haven't seen it since. 

I looked at my wrist-watch and saw by the 
illuminated dial it was 9:28 — only seventeen min- 
utes more. 

I was trembling all over from suppressed excite- 
ment. 

Looking through the loophole I could scarcely 
make out the German trenches through the whirl- 
ing snow and flying smoke of exploding shells, 
even when the rockets flared, although they were 
only two hundred yards away across a slight de- 
pression in the ground. When a particularly great 
number of rockets lit up the snow-covered field I 
could just see a thicket of black stakes which 
marked their barbed wire. Here and there along 
this hedge great black splotches showed where 
our shells had hit, tearing up the snow and earth. 
Red flashes and clouds of smoke rose from where 
their trenches lay. A green rocket went up from 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 107 

their trenches and several machine-guns started to 
pound away, sounding like riveting machines on a 
sky-scraper at home, followed by the cracking of 
rifles all going like mad. 

''They are getting nervous," said the Lieuten- 
ant at my elbow — in which respect, I thought, 
they were not much worse off than I. 

I could hear ricochets spee overhead in the 
trees and the crack of bullets hitting the branches, 
and occasionally dirt would be thrown from the 
parapet of the trench as one struck not a foot 
above my head. 

The small-arm fire gi*adually quieted down but 
did not entirely cease, a machine-gun sputtering 
nervously every now and then. 

"How they must be straining their eyes trying 
to pierce the screen of whirling snow-flakes for 
the first movement in No Man's Land!" declared 
the Lieutenant. "The company on our left will 
go over a few seconds before we do. They have 
a little farther to go — to where the German com- 
municating-trench runs back. They must get back 
there to head the Boches off when they try to 
leave the salient that we will attack. You wait 
until the stretcher-bearers go forward — they will 
follow us — and stick close to Ivan 1" 



io8 SURGEON GROW 

Two minutes more, my watch told me. 

*'Look to your left!" the Lieutenant shouted. 

I looked but could see nothing but whirling 
snow in the flickering glare of the rockets. 

*'The company on the left went over," he said. 
*'I heard their whistles." 

He peered intently at his watch, holding a 
whistle to his lips. 

Two shrill blasts and he crawled up over the 
parapet by means of one of the little ladders placed 
there for the purpose. He was followed by the 
w^hite-draped figures of his men. They did not 
hurry but went carefully over, and as I looked 
down the line of the trench I could make out a few 
low-stooping figures passing slowly out through 
the lanes in the barbed wire. They were crawling 
and nearly invisible in their white garb. In a mo- 
ment or two our sector was deserted except for 
the stretcher-bearers and reserves who were gaz- 
ing out of their loopholes. 

"Come!" said Ivan, and crawled up over the 
parapet. 

I was in a daze. My brain felt numb. I was 
trembling all over but I followed with my heart 
thumping under my ribs. 

As I stuck my head and shoulders over and 




\\ hire gowns were worn by the Russian troops as camouflage when raid- 
ing the German trenches through the wastes of snow. 




One of the first women soldiers. She was in the First Siberian Army 
Corps, to which the author belonged, in 1916. Wounded at the battle 
of Postovy after reaching the third German line of trenches in the at- 
tack, she was rescued and brought to the author's dressing station, where 
her sex was discovered. 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 109 

looked out I saw three blood red rockets shoot 
up from the German lines on the left and then 
a dozen machine-guns started, together with a 
sharp volley of rifle fire, and the screech of shells. 
The wicked red flashes and the sharp stunning re- 
ports of their explosions indicated the starting of 
the German barrage through which we had to 
pass. 

The red rockets were thrown up by the Ger- 
mans, who had seen the attacking company on 
their right and were asking for an artillery bar- 
rage. 

I followed Ivan's great stooping bulk as he 
scurried quickly through the barbed wire, half a 
dozen stretcher-bearers following at my heels. 

There was a rip of tearing cloth and a stretch- 
er-bearer swore softly as his white coat caught on 
the barbed wire. I could see nothing at all of the 
men of our company who had gone ahead. They 
were completely swallowed up in the swirling 
snow. 

Ivan suddenly stopped and leaned over some- 
thing white lying in the snow. 

The stretcher-bearers crowded up about him, a 
sharp order was given, and the white object was 
placed groaning on the back of an orderly, who 



no SURGEON GROW 

started running back toward our trenches with it. 

We sped on over the snow, the Germans now 
firing all along the hne, and the din of the ma- 
chine-guns and rifles was terrific. Every now and 
then shrapnel would explode overhead with a 
coughing crump! and I could hear the bullets hit 
the ground about me as I ran. 

Ivan turned and ran left and then forward 
again, lifting his feet high over a mass of twisted 
wire and stakes. This was German wire torn by 
our artillery fire. He had found an opening and 
I followed him. 

The firing directly In front of us was not so 
Intense, but to the left, where the Germans were 
still throwing up their red rockets shrapnel, H E 
shells and bombs were making a great row. I 
could hear voices — Russian words of command — 
above the uproar. 

Again Ivan stooped and another orderly went 
back with a limp form on his back. 

Ivan started up over a ridge of earth covered 
with snow. He reached the top and stood poised 
a moment In the glare of a rocket. Then he 
coughed hollowly, swayed and slipped back, his 
great bulk crashing on top of me and carrying 
me down into a tangle of barbed wire. 



I GO ''OVER THE TOP" iii 

As he fell, I thought of the bomb In my right 
hand. I felt something warm running down over 
my face as I squirmed out from under Ivan's 
body. 

An orderly was bending over him. 

"A bullet through the forehead, Excellency!" 
he reported. "He Is quite dead, but I will take 
him back. Did they get you too?" 

"Oh, no," I replied. "Take poor Ivan back." 

I wiped my sleeve over my wet face and the 
white cloth showed a dark stain, but, strangely 
enough, I felt no pain. 

^^Sanitar! Sanitarf* a voice called from the 
darkness ahead. 

I could see no one but crawled up cautiously 
over the ridge which I knew was the parapet of 
the German trench. I looked down over the par- 
apet and saw two white-coated figures looking up 
at me. 

"We have a wounded officer here," one of them 
said, as I slid over the parapet with the four re- 
maining orderlies. He pointed to a third figure 
seated on the fire-step of the captured German 
trench. Two orderlies climbed back upon the 
parapet and we passed the wounded officer up to 
them. 



112 SURGEON GROW 

*'Be careful. It's his leg/' one of the soldiers 
said. 

When they had started back across No Man's 
Land with their burden, we went down the Ger- 
man trench toward the left. 

I had gone only a few feet when I stumbled 
over a form lying in the darkness. As I stooped 
over it, one of the soldiers who was following me 
flashed an electric torch on the ashy face. It was 
a dead German with a small puncture In the 
throat from which a trickle of blood still oozed, 
and another in the chest. 

*'Bayonet!" commented an orderly at my elbow. 

We proceeded on up the trench and finally came 
to a number of steps which led down to a strongly 
built dug-out. I started to go down but was 
stopped by one of the soldiers. 

**Don't go down without first throwing a bomb 
Into the dug-out," he urged. ^'There may be 
Germans lurking there." 

I threw the bomb which I had In my right hand 
through the open door, slipping the ring off the 
handle. A loud explosion shook the ground. A 
soldier flashed his searchlight over my shoulder 
as we entered the dug-out, which was filled with 
smoke from the bomb. 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 113 

Through the gray veil of the little shaft of light, 
we searched about the dark interior and found in 
the center an overturned table and, in one corner, 
a crouching gray figure. The uniform was torn 
and soaked with blood. As I stepped toward it, 
the German weakly called: "Kamerad!" 

The German's face was covered with blood 
from a dozen small wounds which the bomb had 
made, but as he seemed able to walk we decided 
to take him with us. 

The two orderlies led him out, escorting him 
by the arms ; and when we had gained the trench, 
we found that we had over-stayed our time by two 
minutes. We clambered up over the German par- 
apet and started back on the run over No Man's 
Land, the two orderlies dragging their prisoner 
with them. 

The Germans were now throwing a strong bar- 
rage in No Man's Land. From their support- 
trenches rockets flared and they began to shell the 
trenches we had just taken. One hit the parapet 
about forty yards away, showering us with dirt. 

"I am hit in the arm!" exclaimed one of our 
men, but he changed his rifle to his other arm 
and went on. 

We stooped low as we ran, and as I flew over 



114 SURGEON GROW 

the snow I had a queer feeling in my back — a feel- 
ing of expectancy as though something were go- 
ing to hit me right between the shoulders — the 
sort of feeling you have when you're going down 
a dark, lonely road at night and you suddenly hear 
the patter of footsteps just behind you. 

The orderlies and their prisoner were left far 
in the rear. In front of me I saw our barbed wire 
and I scurried along till I found an opening and 
plunged through, bumping into several other 
white-coats as I scrambled down over the parapet 
In a shower of loosened dirt. Then I sat down 
on the fire-steps gasping for breath. I think I 
had done the last 200 yards in less than nothing. 

Our men who had gotten safely back were talk- 
ing excitedly. 

''I ran him through and lifted him off his feet, 
my bayonet bent and he shd off," I heard one 
say. "Our bayonets ought to be stronger and 
thicker. See how it is bent." 

I started up the trench and ran into Lieutenant 
Muhanoff. 

"You are all right, I am so glad!" he exclaimed, 
grabbing me by the shoulders. "Ivan is dead — 
dum-dum bullet through the head. I feared some- 
thing had happened to you. What is wrong with 



I GO "OVER THE TOP" 115 

your face, you are covered with blood?" he asked 
as a rocket flickered. 

He led me to a dug-out and held up a candle to 
my face. 

"Strange, no wound. How did you get it?" he 
asked. 

Then I remembered Ivan — how he had toppled 
over on me. 

''Must be from Ivan," I said. *T was at his 
heels as he climbed over the parapet. He fell 
back on me and I felt something warm running 
down my face." 

We were joined by several young officers who 
had taken part in the raid and their conversation 
reminded me of the dressing-room after a foot- 
ball game, when the team discusses the incidents 
of the game. 

"Our company on the left flank got off in the 
snow," said a boyish looking officer, his eyes glow- 
ing. "We could not see a thing. We went too 
far to the left and were late in shutting off the 
communication-trench. A lot of Germans escaped 
before we got there. You fellows in the other 
company got in before we did and drove them out. 
Say, how many machine-guns did we get?" 

"Five." 



ii6 SURGEON GROW 

*'That's good; we'll have that many more in 
the regiment. And we got twenty prisoners, too/' 

(The Russian regiments at that time averaged 
about 15 machine-guns to the regiment; the Ger- 
mans had about 80 to the regiment.) 

*'Yes, and we would have had more if your old 
company had not got lost. You fellows should not 
be allowed out after dark!" 

We left them chatting away, and walked to- 
ward our dressing station. The Germans were 
still throwing rockets and pounding the section 
we had raided with H E shells. 

"They are not certain whether we are still there 
or not," explained the Lieutenant. 

"How many men did we lose?" I inquired. 

"I think there were 8 killed and 45 wounded." 

At the dressing-station we found Nicholi Alex- 
androvitch bandaging the German we had taken 
from the dug-out. 

"We have finished with eight of our wounded: 
they are now on their way back," said Nicholi. 
'HThe other regimental stations handled the other 
wounded." 

The wounded German was a middle-aged man. 
He did not look very formidable. He was cov- 
ered with small wounds from the exploding bomb. 



I GO *'OVER THE TOP" 117 

He looked so pathetic and helpless as he sat there 
having his numerous cuts touched with iodine that 
I felt sorry for him. 

"I ran into the dug-out when the Russians en- 
tered our trenches/' he said. *'I could not get to 
an approach-trench as I heard the Russians ahead 
blocking my escape. I was hiding in the corner 
when there was a terrible explosion and I was 
driven up against the wall. Then some Russian 
soldiers came and brought me here." 

I was glad he didn't recognize me, as I felt 
rather guilty about that bomb. His wounds, while 
numerous, were not dangerous and barring tetanus 
or blood-poisoning he would recover. He was 
soon bumping back over the rough roads in one 
of our ambulances bound for the division hospital. 

The Boche artillery was quieting down. Occa- 
sionally a machine-gun could be heard pounding 
out a few nervous shots, and then all would be 
quiet. 

We sat down to discuss the night's work. Mike, 
his face beaming with smiles that I had returned 
safely, brought in the samovar, we lit our long 
fragrant cigarettes and leaned back in comfort. 
When Lieutenant Muhanoff rose to go I accom- 
panied him to the door. The position lay as quiet 



ii8 SURGEON GROW 

as before the raid. There was an occasional rocket 
and a single rifle shot now and then, but that was 
all. The snow had stopped falling and the sky- 
was clear. Great sparkling stars glared coldly 
in the black arch of the heavens and the wind 
murmured softly through the branches of the 
pines. It was hard to realize that a few hours 
ago this peaceful Russian forest had been a howl- 
ing inferno. 



CHAPTER X 

I MEET THE CZAR 

TXrEEKS slipped by — weeks full of interest 
^^ to me to whom everything was new. Every 
day there were a few wounded but not many, for 
both sides were sitting quietly waiting, waiting and 
filling up their regiments with reserves and their 
ammunition-dump with shells. New regiments 
were moved in every two weeks, but we stayed, 
working with each regiment of our division as It 
came out of reserve. 

They would come stealing in at night — a long 
line of men In columns of fours, down the dark 
road through the forest. No talking was allowed 
and there wasn't a sound except their feet crunch- 
ing the hard frozen snow, the occasional clank of 
a tin cup against an intrenching tool, subdued 
coughs, or a low word of command from an officer. 

There were long waits In the frosty air as they 
filed through the communication-trench by squads 
to the fire-trench to take up the positions of their 

119 



120 SURGEON GROW 

tired comrades at the loopholes. The men who 
were released would come out through the com- 
munication-trenches In little groups, line up on the 
road beside the new regiment, and soon another 
regiment would have formed under the shelter of 
the pine-trees — bound for the billets a few miles 
to the rear. Off they would go silently till a mile 
or so back from the trenches. Then they would 
start one of their wonderful marching songs. I 
can hear them now as I write — the fine majestic 
swing, with the plalntlveness of the East in it, 
ringing out on the hard, cold air. 

One day Colonel Kalpaschnecoff came in with 
the news that the Emperor Nicholas was to visit 
our corps. 

"There will be a big review of our troops who 
are in reserve," he said. "It will be worth seeing. 
The Emperor will stay at the staff for several 
days. You must come to the staff dinner and 
meet him." 

The day before I was to ride back to the staff, 
Michael, my orderly, asked me If I cared to take 
a bath before I started. I had been bathing In a 
tIn-basIn not much larger than a soup plate. 
Michael had always insisted upon helping me but 



I MEET THE CZAR 121 

he would shake his head and Indicate his disap- 
proval at such methods of ablution. 

*'That way no good, Meester,'* he would say- 
in his pigeon English, as I balanced on one foot 
in the tiny basin, splashing the water about the 
dug-out. "Russian bath better." 

"I know it's no good, Mike," I would reply, 
"but It's the best the country seems to afford." 

"Meester, go with me to Russian bath, yes?" 
he persisted, when I asked him to get the hot 
water on this particular afternoon. 

"Russian bath I" I exclaimed In astonishment. 
"How can I run up to Petrograd and be back 
to-morrow, Mike? What are you talking about?" 

"Have Russian bath here — about one-half 
verst." 

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" 

"I think Meester like American way better." 

We started off, Mike leading the way, carrying 
soap, towels and clean clothes. Finally we came 
to two big dug-outs. 

Steam was pouring from their crude chimneys 
and leaked out through the chinks of the doors, 
rising in clouds in the cold air. The door of one 
of the dug-outs suddenly opened and a gust of 
steam swirled out, from which emerged three fig- 



122 SURGEON GROW 

ures clad in their birthday garments — big, husky- 
Siberians with not a stitch on them. Steam rose 
from their wet, shinmg skin, which was almost the 
color of a fresh-boiled lobster. They rushed off 
into the deep snow, capering about in the drifts 
while I stood gazing at them in astonishment. 

One dived into a snow-bank and kicked and 
rolled about while the others pelted each other 
with snow. I thought I had wandered into a mad- 
house. After romping about for several minutes, 
they dashed back with loud cries into the dug-out. 

"Russian soldier takes bath," laconically re- 
marked Mike. 

"If you think Fm going to bathe in a snow- 
drift, Mike, you're very much mistaken," I said. 

"Oh, no; only soldier does that. Siberian sol- 
dier very strong. No get sick." 

We approached the other dug-out. Over the 
door a crude sign read ^'Offetsersky Bonyah'^ — 
"Officers' Bath." We went down the steps and 
opened the door. It led into a room with a steam- 
ing atmosphere. The temperature was about 90*^ 
Fahrenheit. A large stove of rough masonry with 
a huge fire-box in which logs were burning, filled 
one end of the room. Several soldiers were piling 
on more wood. 



I MEET THE CZAR 123 

Another door opened Into a smaller room which 
was not so steamy nor hot. There were benches 
around the sides and pegs in the wall to hang 
clothes on. This was the dressing-room. Great 
drops of moisture dripped from the celling and 
walls on to the floor, which was made of close- 
laid saplings hewn square. 

We stripped and Mike opened the door which 
led into the bath-room proper. I stepped in. The 
room was frightfully hot. The other end of the 
great stove projected through the wall. Above 
the fire-box was an opening like an oven which 
was filled with stones. Beside the oven, placed 
so as to catch some of the heat, was a steaming 
kettle of water. At one end of the room I could 
see dimly through the vapor a series of step-like 
benches in tiers reaching almost to the ceiling. 
On the walls hung dippers and bundles of birch 
twigs tied together. A barrel of cold water com- 
pleted the equipment. 

Mike told me to sit on the bench. Then he 
dipped out a ladleful of water and threw it on the 
hot stones in the oven. With a loud hiss, a great 
volume of steam flooded the room, and I thought 
I would suffocate. He repeated the process and 
I thought I would parboil. Another attack and 



124 SURGEON GROW 

I felt that I was quite done and ready to serve! 
To my anguished mind he appeared as an imp of 
Satan, skipping about in the rolling clouds of 
vapor as he dodged back to avoid the first out- 
pouring of the scalding stuff — at least his skin 
resembled that of an Imp, a fine scarlet. 

By this time I was sizzling. Every bit of mois- 
ture In my body seemed to be pouring out of my 
skin In droplets. I felt like a turkey being 
'^basted." 

Mike approached me with a basin of hot water 
and doused me with it. He made me lie full 
length on one of the planks while he soaped me 
and scrubbed me with a scrubbing brush. Then 
he poured more hot water on me, and seizing two- 
of the bundles of birch switches proceeded to lay 
them on, one in each hand, beating a tattoo up 
and down my scalded back, stopping only to throw 
more water on the hot stones when the tempera- 
ture of the room threatened to fall below 220°! 

Then he seized a bucket, plunged It In the bar- 
rel of icy water and let me have It. As I gasped 
and sputtered and writhed on the plank, he appro- 
priately announced: "All finish!" 

I reeled out of that chamber of horrors to the 



I MEET THE CZAR 125 

comparatively earthly temperature of the cooling 
room. 

When I reached our dressing station, Nicholi 
rose as I entered the door and shaking my hand 
said politely: ''I congratulate you!" I thanked 
him, stating that I too was glad to have survived 
the ordeal, but I afterward found out that such 
congratulations are customary in Russia and I 
can quite appreciate the origin of this ancient and 
sensible rite. Russian baths are like olives, how- 
ever, and I soon became accustomed — or hardened 
— to them. 

The next morning I rode my little Siberian pony 
back to the base near the staff. The Emperor's 
private train was to arrive at two o'clock at the 
station of Ceslivano, which was twenty miles 
away. 

At twelve-thirty, General Pleschcoff went 
through the village in the Benz limousine — bound 
for the station to meet him. He was followed 
by an escort of a squadron of Cossack cavalry. 

This motor, incidentally, formerly belonged to 
Prince Eitel Frederich of Germany, son of the 
Kaiser. It was captured during the Germans' 
second attack on Warsaw by the soldiers of our 
First Siberian Army Corps. Our troop had broken 



126 SURGEON GROW 

through the German line in a counter-attack and 
some Cossacks attached to the corps got through 
to a considerable depth and nearly captured the 
Prince! His car had become stalled In the mud 
and he was forced to flee on horseback, abandon- 
ing the motor, which the Cossacks took and, with 
their ponies, hauled back to our lines. 

It was a luxurious Benz limousine, upholstered 
in gray. When captured It contained a cut-glass 
vase filled with flowers, a lunch hamper with com- 
plete equipment of dishes, knives, forks and so 
forth, with the Imperial crest engraved on them, 
and some bottles of wine, cigars and cigarettes, 
the latter bearing the Prince's Initials and the 
Hohenzollern crest on them. On the door of the 
limousine was the Imperial coat-of-arms in enamel. 
Some German officers were taken at the same time 
and they freely admitted that It was indeed the 
Prince's car. General Pleschcoff now used it as a 
staff car and I had many enjoyable rides in It. 

Along the road leading to the station, at inter- 
vals of every hundred feet, soldiers were posted, 
and a platoon of cavalry was on guard at every 
cross-road. The snow covering the twenty miles 
of road had been scraped and shoveled Into a fair- 
ly flat surface, and small pine trees had been cut 




Abandoned car of Prince Eitel Friedrich of Germany, being hauled out 
of the mud by Cossacks who captured it. Note the informal attire. 




Mid-day during winter on the Northern front. The sun never rises any 

higher at this time of year. It is dark at 3:30 P.M. and not light until 

10 A.M. The latitude here is about 53°. 



I MEET THE CZAR 127 

and planted in the snow-drifts every twenty or 
thirty feet on both sides, forming an avenue which 
relieved the otherwise bleak and uninviting land- 
scape. 

These preparations had been going on for sev- 
eral days in anticipation of the visit of the Em- 
peror. 

We remained in the village, and at four-thirty 
o'clock a number of motor cars could be heard 
purring down the road. The sentries stood stiffly 
at attention as the car of the German prince but 
now bearing the Czar of all the Russlas passed 
through the dusky street of the little village. We 
could not see him because it was nearly dark but 
we stood at attention in front of our cabin until 
he had passed. 

A number of other staff motors passed, crowded 
with officers, and in front and In the rear of the 
motors the Cossack squadron rode at a brisk trot, 
the steam rising from their ponies in the frosty 
ail. 

That night the Emperor had dinner with Gen- 
eral Pleschcoff privately and immediately after- 
word he retired to rest from his journey. 

At the review the next day, an entire division, 
twenty-five thousand men, was drawn up in a large 



128 SURGEON GROW 

hollow square in the snow-covered field. At one 
end four regimental bands were massed. Our 
little organization, with Its i8o orderlies, was 
lined up in one corner of the field. 

It was very cold standing there In the open with 
the wind whirling clouds of powdery snow about. 
After about fifteen minutes, the staff motors drove 
up, the great band struck up the Russian national 
anthem and twenty-five thousand voices took up Its 
majestic strain. 

The Emperor advanced into the middle of the 
square, followed by General Pleschcoff and a large 
body of officers. Every soldier stood at attention, 
and when the reviewing party had reached the 
center the band stopped and the Emperor spoke 
some words to the soldiers and then started down 
the long line of men, stopping at every company 
to shake hands with the officers. 

As the Emperor passed down the line, the heads 
of the soldiers turned as though drawn toward him 
by a magnet, the Russian custom requiring every 
soldier to look the reviewing officer In the eye 
every moment. When the reviewing officer stands 
still and the troops pass by him the same rule Is 
followed, so that when they get directly opposite 
him every head Is turned sharply over the shoulder 



I MEET THE CZAR 129 

and snaps back like clockwork to a front gaze 
just as they pass him. 

As the Emperor passed our corner I saw that he 
was dressed In the ordinary field uniform with the 
Insignia of a colonel on his shoulder-straps. He 
wore the plain brown overcoat such as we all had 
on and a regular gray Persian-lambskin winter 
cap. He came up to Colonel Kalpaschnecoff, 
saluted, shook hands, and addressed a few friend- 
ly words to him In Russian, and passed on to where 
I stood with my hand to my cap In salute. 

*^Our new American doctor. Your Imperial 
Highness!" said General Pleschcoff. 

"American doctor!" repeated the Emperor In 
perfect English, a kindly smile lighting up his 
face. "And you have come over here all the way 
from America to help our wounded?" he asked. 

"Yes, Your Imperial Highness," I answered, In 
English. 

"That is very fine, very good of you. We are 
very much in need of doctors," and he passed on. 

He was a medium-sized man, erect and soldierly 
in bearing. His skin was a peculiar dusky red. 
He had large dark eyes — the kindest eyes I have 
ever seen. 

He had a brown moustache and a neatly 



130 SURGEON GROW 

trimmed brown beard. There were a few streaks 
of gray In his beard and hair, and lines of care 
were beginning to show around his eyes and brow. 

He passed completely around the square. A 
group of priests clad in brilliant cloaks of gold 
and silver cloth, their long locks flowing in the 
wind, contrasted conspicuously with the dun-col- 
ored uniforms of a choir of soldiers. A long re- 
ligious ceremony followed, during which every 
one, including the Emperor, stood bareheaded In 
the cold — and it was perhaps five degrees below 
zero. 

At times we all had to kneel In the snow while 
the priests chanted and the soldier choir sang the 
responses, their wonderful Russian voices sound- 
ing clear in the sparkling air. 

It was a most impressive ceremony, the occa- 
sional far-off rumble of artillery adding to the 
effect. 

In the great room at the staff that night, a 
throng of officers in uniforms glittering with deco- 
rations were gathered In groups, gaily chatting, 
when the door opened and the Emperor entered. 
A sudden hush fell on the noisy place and every 
man faced the door. 

The Emperor went from group to group with 



I MEET THE CZAR 131 

General Pleschcoff, greeting each man cordially. 

When he came to me, a friendly smile lit up 
his countenance. 

"How do you like it here in the Russian army? 
Isn't the life too rough for you?" he asked. "We 
are a very simple people at best and our climate 
in winter Is most trying, but I hope you are com- 
fortable." 

I told him that everything had been done to 
make me happy and that I was enjoying the life 
and the work very much. I noticed that the brick- 
red dusky coloration of his face, which I had 
thought in the afternoon might be due to the cold 
air of the reviewing field, still remained. He had 
a trick of nervously stroking back his moustache 
and then passing his hand to the side of his neck 
where the fingers would gently rub the skin. This 
was repeated on many occasions, particularly when 
he was absorbed in thought. He impressed me as 
an unassuming kind of man who would rather be 
in some secluded spot with his children than in 
the turmoil and ceremony of court life, and I think 
of him now, out there in the little Siberian town 
where he is in exile, not as a disappointed and 
unhappy man but rather as being content in the 



132 SURGEON GROW 

bosom of his family unburdened of the cares of 
state. 

At dinner, conversation flowed freely around 
the board without the least restraint, despite the 
fact that the ruler of the destinies of two hundred 
million people was seated there. 

When we left the staff that night, Kalpaschne- 
coff remarked: "We all love the Emperor. Un- 
fortunately he Is surrounded in Petrograd by a 
crowd of men In which there Is much pro-German 
influence. If he only had the strength of character 
that the Grand Duke Nicholas has, things would 
be better in Russia. When the Grand Duke was 
Commander-in-Chief, he was feared and at the 
same time loved by the army because he was al- 
ways fair In his treatment of the soldiers even 
though he was a strict disciplinarian. Our Em- 
peror detests strife. He tries to smooth every- 
thing over. Instead of kicking out the German 
propagandists he is willing to endure them al- 
though he knows full well that they are the un- 
doing of the nation." 

The Colonel's views were, of course, fully sus- 
tained by the events which followed. 



CHAPTER XI 

OVER THE GERMAN LINES 

T T was now past mid-winter. A foot and a half 
of snow covered the ground and the cold was 
intense, sometimes as low as fifteen degrees below 
zero. 

The vast forest and swamps and fields through 
which the far-flung northern fighting line passed, 
lay sleeping white and desolate beneath the gray- 
skies. 

The two great armies apparently shared na- 
ture's lethargy, but they were not asleep. Always, 
day and night, they lay watching, waiting like two 
great beasts to spring at each other's throat. 
By day the aeroplanes winged their way through 
the frigid atmosphere, and by night the patrols 
crept out in No Man's Land seeking information 
concerning the enemy. Watching, waiting, not a 
battalion moved on the German side but what we 
knew it, and they were equally well informed of 
our maneuvers. 

133 



134 SURGEON GROW 

One cold night I was called to our aviation field 
to see one of our aviators who had been taken 
sick. I treated him for the next day or two and, 
by way of appreciation, he offered to take me 
across the lines in his machine some day If I 
wanted to go, although It was against orders. 
I told him I would certainly like to go If It wouldn't 
get him into any trouble; and some three weeks 
later I got a note from him telling me to be at 
his hangar at three p.m. 

I found the Captain testing out a big two-seated 
machine In the snowy field. 

*'This was formerly a German plane," he ex- 
plained. "We shot her down Inside our lines and 
as she was not very much damaged, we fixed her 
up and are using her. She Is of Albatross observa- 
tion and bombing type — not very fast but big and 
steady." 

He adjusted a fur-lined leather helmet to my 
head. It covered everything but my eyes. 

"It will be very cold this evening, but the air 
conditions are good for flying. You sit here In 
the observer's seat," he said, pointing to a little 
cock-pit in the body of the machine back of the 
driver's seat. He adjusted the belt to my waist, 
strapping me In the seat. On a metal rail around 




Machine guns mounted on revolving stand for use against enemy aero- 
planes. The Russians had only 15 of these weapons to a regiment, as 
compared with the Germans' 80. 




German albatross-type aeroplane shot down by the Russian anti-aircraft 

guns. It was repaired and used by Russian aviators. In this machine 

the author flew over the German lines under shell fire. 



OVER TKE GERMAN LINES 135 

the cock-pit was mounted a light machine-gun on 
a universal joint. Strapped alongside my seat 
under the decking was a carbine, such as our cav- 
alry use. 

"You may have to fire the carbine, If neces- 
sary," the Captain said, as he took his seat for-; 
ward, **but of course you cannot operate the ma- 
chine-gun. I have a couple of bombs underneath 
ready for dropping." 

A mechanic spun the propeller and the motor 
started with a roar like a dozen machine-guns. 
Several soldiers held on to the wings to keep her 
from moving. The strong blasts of air shot back 
by the whirling propellers struck me In the face. 

The Captain nodded his head, the soldiers let 
go and we started down the field. 

Faster and faster we went. I looked over the 
edge of the cock-pit and ground was dropping 
out from under me. Down It went, objects shrink- 
ing In size as if by magic, the wire stays humming 
like a top as the air whistled through them. The 
motor roared and we dipped and we banked on a 
turn, spiralling upward. 

Fields and forests and peasants' houses stood 
out like a relief map and the horizon momentarily 



ic;6 SURGEON GROW 



o 



receded as we soared higher and higher, enlarging 
our scope of vision. 

After some minutes of upward circling, we 
headed straight for the west, where the golden 
sun was dipping beneath the edge of the earth. 
I suppose that we were at least 8,000 feet in the 
air. Things looked pretty small. 

In a short time we were over the forest along 
the farther edge of which lay our trenches. On 
we flew, straight as an arrow, and presently I 
saw the "wall of Troy" effect where our trenches 
emerged in spots from the edge of the forest. 
Across a little open space of field, which I knew to 
be No Man's Land, I could see the German lines 
with their zigzag approach trenches. 

As we passed them, I saw a yellow-brown puff 
of smoke In the air far below and off to the right. 
Several others appeared as though by magic, and 
then above the roar of the motor I heard a faint 
put-put — the explosion of German anti-aircraft 
shrapnel — they were shooting at us. 

Roads ran straggling off through the forest and 
over the fields like black threads on a white cloth. 
A group of gray dots directly on one of these 
roads scattered and disappeared under the shelt- 
ering trees bordering on the road. I knew that 



OVER THE GERMAN LINES 137 

they were German soldiers getting under cover 
fearing that we would spot them and drop a bomb 
on them. They reminded me of chickens at home 
when a hawk would float over them. 

More brown puffs of smoke appeared, some 
fairly close and others far away, as the Germans 
increased their fire on us. 

I was not alarmed — those little brown puffs 
looked so harmless — and the fact that I could hear 
their explosion only faintly made them appear less 
dangerous than they otherwise would have done. 

Soon, however, the Germans began to get the 
range better and then the Captain dipped and I 
was looking down over his head straight toward 
the earth for a second or so. I felt as if we were 
falling: my stomach seemed rising into my chest. 
Then we assumed the horizontal again. 

By dropping several thousand feet we got un- 
der the German shrapnel which now burst harm- 
lessly above us as we turned and flew directly 
north paralleling the German lines. 

Below I saw a group of gray squares, the 
thatched roofs of peasant huts, from which the 
snow had melted. When we were directly over 
the village, the Captain pointed down with his 
hand over the side, indicating that I should watch 



138 SURGEON GROW 

closely, and then reached down and manipulated 
something near his feet. 

I looked over the side and saw a dark object 
flash down under the machine for an Instant and 
then disappear as the machine lurched slightly. 
A great white mushroom-shaped cloud rolled up 
from the center of the village. The Captain had 
dropped one of his bombs, suspecting, as I learned 
later, that the staff of a German division was lo- 
cated In one of the larger houses of this village. 
As we moved on I looked back and saw smoke 
pouring up from the village, indicating that a 
house was on fire. 

The sun was now below the horizon and the 
earth under us was growing dusky and objects in- 
distinct. We headed east toward our lines, the 
golden afterglow at our backs. 

We were some miles back of the German lines 
at a height of about 10,000 feet, I should judge, 
when the motor suddenly stopped. The wind 
whistled just the same through the cordage but 
the monotonous roar of the motor was gone. 

The Captain leaned forward, hastily working 
on something on the dashboard in front of us. 
The nose of the machine was turned slightly to- 
ward the ground. I did not realize our danger 



OVER THE GERMAN LINES 139 

until the Captain shouted: *'We are in for it 
now — ^motor dead — don't know whether I can 
plane back to our lines — or not!" 

In the gathering gloom below, I saw several 
red flashes stab upward: then I heard a screech 
and several distinct explosions above us and to 
the right. With the motor dead, it was easy to 
hear the coughing report of the German shrapnel. 
The earth seemed gradually to float up as we 
glided swiftly down and forward toward the lines. 

Could we make it? 

There was no wind to help us. The Captain 
devoted all his attention to the machine. Again 
and again he tried to start the motor, but she re- 
mained silent. He was getting all the forward 
movement he could with a minimum waste in alti- 
tude, peering intently through the gloom for a 
glimpse of the trenches. 

I pictured myself a prisoner in Germany or 
hanging by a rib to the top of a pine-tree, for fields 
suitable for landing were few and far between. 

Ahead the forest was broken by a gap. Per- 
haps, I thought, it was No Man's Land. 

We were whirling down perilously close to the 
tops of the pines and I knew that machine-guns 
and rifle bullets could easily reach us as we crossed 



HO SURGEON GROW 

the lines. Fortunately the motor was quiet as 
we rushed along, so that we flew silently and would 
not be so apt to attract attention. i 

There was a loud explosion below and the ma- 
chine lurched drunkenly — the Captain had 
dropped the remaining bomb in the first part of 
the German lines because it was too dangerous 
to carry, as we did not know what sort of landing 
we would make. 

We were now crossing the open space. I could 
see the German trenches below quite distinctly, 
and a slight crackling sound like fire in dry grass 
came up to me as they sniped at us with rifles and 
machine-guns. 

Beyond the open space of No Man's Land 
stretched the black wall of our forest barring the 
way. We headed for it and then veered sharply 
to the left, and I saw the Captain's objective — 
there was a tiny clearing beyond a gap in the for- 
est where the trees were not so tall. 

We got over our lines and headed for this 
clearing. If we could just scrape over the scrub- 
pines, we could make a landing. With great skill 
and judgment, the Captain elevated her nose, per- 
ilously lessening her momentum, for if we slowed 
down too much we would have a lateral or tail 



OVER THE GERMAN LINES 141 

dive and be dashed to pieces. He dipped again 
and I could almost touch the tops of the pines as 
we shot over them. Then he raised her nose, we 
skimmed a spiked top, and were clear of the trees. 

We glided down into the center of that little 
clearing, bouncing along over the uneven ground 
and finally stopped. We both sat still a moment. 
The Captain crossed himself and I knew he was 
murmuring a little prayer of thanks. 

A soldier came running out of the forest, his 
rifle held ready to fire, because In the dark he 
could not tell whether we were friend or foe. 

*'All right, Galoopchick!" sang out the Cap- 
tain. "Don't shoot: we are Russians!" 

When the soldier came up we found that we 
had landed in the territory back of the lines held 
by the 5th regiment of our corps — about two miles 
north of our dressing station and half a mile back 
of the first line trenches. 

The report the Captain made out at our dress- 
ing station, at which he stopped for a moment or 
two, revealed to me what training and practice in 
aerial observation can accomplish. I have set 
down nearly everything I saw while above the 
German lines, and my eyes are far better than the 
average, but the Captain reported the location of 



142 SURGEON GROW 

two new German batteries; the reoccupation of a 
dug-out village by a new regiment of German 
troops in reserve ; the fact that the Germans were 
using a certain field for the drilling of troops in 
reserve; and that field kitchens were brought up 
at dusk on a road which could be easily reached 
by our artillery. 

No wonder the air has played such an impor- 
tant part in this war 1 



CHAPTER XII 

THROUGH A SHOWER OF SHELLS 

QIGNS of unusual activity in the corps began 
^ to develop as the middle of February was 
reached. The days were growing longer, and 
while the cold was just as Intense one felt that 
the backbone of the winter was broken. 

The aeroplanes droned across the sky more 
frequently, and the transport was bringing up 
great supplies of ammunitions and stowing them 
in the shell-dumps. 

One day a German aeroplane flew over our 
lines and dropped circulars printed in Russian 
which stated that the Germans knew we were to 
make an offensive, that they were aware of all the 
preparations we were making and were driving 
up reserves In men and artillery to check any 
attack we might make. The pamphlet even went 
so far as to say: *'We are aware that you will 
attack on March 6th, 191 6, Russian style." 

These circulars were dropped about February 
143 



144 SURGEON GROW 

loth — Russian style — which is thirteen days later 
than our new style. 

We were amused at these announcements, con- 
sidering them just German bluff, and yet we could 
feel something was really in the air. 

Orders came that the entire army corps was 
to move to a new position about ten miles farther 
south. We started for our new base on February 
27th and found the roads choked with new troops 
coming in to replace our corps. For miles they 
stretched across the frozen landscape. The roads 
were like huge brown arteries through which 
flowed slowly moving columns of men, artillery 
and transports, ebbing on endlessly to replace our 
corps — a constant stream of gray-brown. 

By March 2nd we were In the trenches taking 
the place of a Caucasian division which had been 
holding them all the winter. 

All this time a great concentration of artillery 
was taking place directly in the rear of our new 
lines. Huge 9-inch and 6-inch guns came lumber- 
ing through the village. The roads had not yet 
begun to thaw and they were easy to move. End- 
less columns of caissons loaded with shells rattled 
back and forth bringing up shells to fill their gap- 
ing throats. The Russian officers were overjoyed 



THROUGH SHOWER OF SHELLS 145 

at the immense amount of big guns and ammuni- 
tion available. They were at last to meet the Ger- 
mans on an almost equal footing. 

"At last we have enough artillery!" exclaimed 
Lieutenant Muhanoff excitedly one day, rushing 
into the cabin where we had our base. ''We'll 
give them a pounding and walk right through to 
Vilna." 

Everybody felt equally optimistic, for we heard 
that General Pleschcoff had been given five army 
corps to command. They were placed on a front 
of about 35 kilometers, three in the line and two 
in reserve. 

This was apparently true, for already near our 
base a reserve army corps of 40,000 men was in 
billet in numerous little villages and dug-out towns. 
A division of Cossack cavalry had also been 
brought up and held in reserve in case we broke 
through. 

There was no question that a big battle was 
impending. The heavy guns which had reached 
their positions were heard every day getting the 
range of the German positions. 

On March 3rd I visited the trenches to pick 
out advanced and main dressing stations in our 
first division. 



146 SURGEON GROW 

The trenches were again at the edge of a great 
forest, facing across a flat open field, across which 
was another great forest of pines. The German 
trenches were on the edge of the latter. The 
field was about a quarter of a mile wide without 
a bit of cover. 

The new ground differed from that which we 
had occupied to the north in that it was simply a 
great swamp. The trenches were dug in only 
about two feet. There was a thick covering of 
ice on the bottom. To make up for their lack of 
depth, they had been built up in front with banks 
of dirt and sod. On account of the swampy char- 
acter of the ground, very few dug-outs had been 
constructed and not one fit for use was at our dis- 
posal. We had to work in tents covered with 
pine boughs to hide them from observation. 

It gave promise of being very nasty, dangerous 
work. The only protection we had from the Ger- 
man artillery were the tree-trunks. 

Our batteries were grouped in the forest. 
There seemed to be hundreds of them, the three- 
inch guns being close to the line, the heavier pieces 
two or three kilometers back. One light battery 
was up within a hundred and fifty yards of the 
first line trenches. 



THROUGH SHOWER OF SHELLS 147 

As I walked through the forest, I would come 
upon battery after battery cleverly concealed In 
the underbrush. A few hundred feet back of the 
spot I picked for the main dressing station, lo- 
cated about a third of a mile behind the trenches, 
were grouped sixteen three-inch guns In a line not 
twenty feet apart. 

I did not like having the dressing station so 
near, but there was no other place available. In 
this war, strictly military matters have first choice 
— the care of the wounded Is a secondary consid- 
eration. 

I dropped in to see the commander of one of 
the batteries who was known throughout the corps 
as one of the best artillery officers in the army, 
although he was a queer old character. He had 
been wounded on three occasions earlier In the war 
and had the reputation of being a regular old fire- 
eater. He was pop-eyed and had a little beard 
under his chin, and resembled very much a patri- 
archal old billy-goat. 

He always kept two milk cows with his battery 
because he wouldn't drink his tea without milk. 
I had just passed them, stolidly munching hay, 
tied to trees near the battery. He also carried 



148 SURGEON GROW 

an old brassy graphophone with him wherever he 
went. 

His men had built him a small hut of logs and 
dirt, heated by a charcoal brazier. I pushed aside 
the piece of canvas which served as a door and 
looked in. 

He was sitting hunched up over the brazier, 
his fur coat buttoned tight up around his neck and 
his bulging eyes glowing in the light of a candle 
stuck in the neck of an empty bottle as he pored 
over a map. The interior of the hut was not 
much larger than a dog kennel but the grapho- 
phone was there standing on a block of wood. 

"Come in! Come in! Close the door: it is 
cold!" he bawled. He always shouted at me, evi- 
dently thinking that the difficulty I had in under- 
standing Russian was an indication that I was 
hard-of-hearing, although, as a matter of fact, 
he had undoubtedly acquired the habit of talking 
loudly from the necessities of his work when his 
batteries were in action. 

"Well, Colonel," I said, "I see you are all fixed 
up to give the Germans a serenade !" 

"Serenade ! We're going to blow them to hell : 
we're going to blow them to hell!" he shouted. 
"They've concentrated a number of batteries in a 



THROUGH SHOWER OF SHELLS 149 

clump of trees no larger than my hand. We're 
going to let them have a hundred guns steadily 
until we have mowed down trees, batteries and 
everything! You won't find anything left but 
scrap-iron when we finish." 

**Do you think the Germans know we're going 
to attack?" I asked. 

''Know it!" he yelled. "They know the exact 
minute it is to come off — which is more than I do. 
I don't even know what day it is to be. They 
knew long ago — as soon as it was planned in 
Petrograd." 

He was so excited that the veins on his fore- 
head stood out like cords and his face was purple. 
I returned to our base, and the next day we 
brought down the ambulances and several wagons 
carrying three tents, one large and two small, 
surgical material, three small stoves, provision and 
horse feed. 

We made quite a long column. As we ap- 
proached our destination we had to go over a 
road which ran across an open field and which 
was exposed to the German observers. It was 
about 3 P. M. and quite light. 

"I should advise your Excellency not to cross 



150 SURGEON GROW 

till dark/' advised a sentry. "The Germans have 
shelled every one who has crossed to-day." 

It was a good mile to the screening forest be- 
yond. Not a living thing could be seen on the 
road, but here and there I could make out the dead 
bodies of horses lying sprawled out on the road 
with their legs sticking stiffly in the air. 

"All the transport and artillery were brought 
up at night," the sentry continued, "and to-day 
only single wagons or a small group of men at a 
time have been allowed to cross." 

I had been ordered to have my dressing sta- 
tion In order by the next morning, however, and 
as I could not very well fix things up in the dark, 
I decided to take a chance despite the sentry's 
warning. 

I told the drivers to allow a good space between 
each wagon and to cross at a brisk trot, whipping 
up their horses and galloping as rapidly as pos- 
sible to the other side if we were shelled. 

We were half-way across and I was congratu- 
lating myself on our good fortune when I heard 
a warning screech in the air as a shell passed over 
our heads. It burst with a loud report, throw- 
ing up a fountain of black smoke and dirt in a 
field about four hundred yards beyond, and the 



THROUGH SHOWER OF SHELLS 151! 

drivers whipped up their horses and galloped for 
dear life, the little two-wheeled ambulances bounc- 
ing over the frozen road. 

The travelling kitchen was not so fortunate. It 
was very heavy and the horses could move only 
at a trot. The drivers yelled as only Russian 
drivers can and waved their long whips in the air 
but the horses needed no urging when a second 
shell came in with a whiz-hang! — this time only 
two hundred yards beyond the road. Then a 
yellow puff of smoke appeared in the air ahead 
and a shrapnel shell coughed out its pellets, mak- 
ing the snow fly up in little spurts in the field just 
beyond the road. 

We were flying along at this time and several 
more high explosives came over, but all burst be- 
yond the road. We galloped behind a little rise 
of ground which hid us from the view of the 
German observer and we had no more shells for 
a couple of minutes. When we emerged from the 
little knoll, however, the Germans were waiting 
for us and a shell screeched down and burst not 
a hundred feet ahead of my horse. I crouched 
low on the horse's neck, expecting to be hit, but 
nothing happened. Another hundred yards and 
we were safely in the forest. The wagons came 



152 SURGEON GROW 

bouncing in under the trees and the drivers 
laughed excitedly, but I noticed that the faces of 
many of them were pale. I am sure mine was. 

That evening we hastily set up our dressing 
station. The small tents for the advance dressing 
station were placed in the forest about a hundred 
yards back of the first line trenches. We covered 
them completely with the branches of pine-trees 
to hide them from the Germans. We placed the 
large tent a third of a mile back along the road, 
near the old Colonel's battery. This was to be 
the main dressing station where the ambulances 
would meet the stretcher-bearers when they car- 
ried the wounded back from the advance dressing 
station. Horses and ambulances were parked 
under the trees near the main dressing station. 
We had a little charcoal stove in each tent. Wood 
could not be used, as the smoke would have at- 
tracted German fire. 

The night of the fifth of March was intensely 
cold. A foot of snow covered the ground. The 
troops who were billeted in the forest in reserve, 
however, had no tents and had to sleep in the 
snow, for there were few dug-outs on account of 
the marshy nature of the ground. Most of them 
had to be content with shelters built of brush to 



THROUGH SHOWER OF SHELLS 153 

shield them from the biting wind where, without 
blankets, they sat about, crouched over little char- 
coal fires in the snow. 

The Russian soldier is not provided with a 
blanket — his overcoat of medium-weight having 
to serve instead. He has underwear of cotton 
muslin. This, with a pair of heavy trousers and 
a fairly heavy shirt, or ruhoshka, is all he has to 
protect him from the biting cold of an almost 
arctic climate. 

Despite their sufferings, the soldiers in reserve 
were extremely patient. Not a complaint was 
heard. Were they not going to break through the 
German lines and drive the Invader out of Holy 
Russia? 

They sat about In little groups singing softly, 
for the Germans must not hear them, huddled 
close together for warmth. Some were drying 
out their foot-gear, holding over the glowing em- 
bers of their fires the long strips of cloth which 
they use In place of socks. 

I felt sorry for them at first because they had 
no socks and asked one old bearded stretcher- 
bearer who was engaged in the drying-out process 
If his feet did not become cold without socks. 

"We don't like socks," he repHed. "We wrap 



154 SURGEON GROW 

this long cloth around the foot and leg and then 
slide Into our boots. When the foot becomes wet 
we turn the cloth end for end, wrapping the wet 
part around the leg, where it dries quickly, while 
the dry end Is wrapped around the foot and Leeps 
it warm." 

I have since learned that the German soldiers 
have In many Instances abandoned the sock for 
this more primitive but sensible article. 

That night I slept in the main dressing station 
on a pallet of fresh pine boughs, wrapped up In 
my sleeping bag. As I went to sleep I heard the 
Colonel's old graphophone grinding out the strains 
of the Berceuse from Joselyn, punctuated at cer- 
tain points by an ear-splitting crash from one of 
his three-inchers and the drone of a shell over- 
head as he sent the Nemets a good-night message. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 

/^ N March 6th, at nine o'clock in the morning, 
^■^^ our artillery opened up a terrific fire on the 
German barbed wire, fire-line trenches, and such 
batteries as had been spotted by our aeroplanes. 

I went down into our first-line trenches, which 
were half filled with Icy snow and muddy water; 
coming up almost to my knees, and peered out 
through a loophole toward the German trenches. 
The black line of forest along which his first line 
ran was almost hidden by spurting clouds of smoke 
and dirt. A gray haze simply hid them from 
view where the high explosive shells tore up 
barbed wire and trench parapets. 

The crashing of our guns was Incessant, pro- 
ducing the sound known as **drum-fire," and the 
shells screeched and hummed overhead In a steady 
procession. The German batteries were replying, 
firing principally on our batteries and the reserve 

155 



156 SURGEON GROW 

positions, where the troops were lying in the for- 
est unprotected by trenches. 

Occasionally machine-guns and rifles would 
burst forth in a crackling volley as they became 
nervous, but most of the time the rifle lire 
amounted only to the isolated shots of snipers. 

I went to one of our advance dressing stations 
where a few wounded men struck by shrapnel were 
coming in from the reserve positions and were 
being bandaged and sent to the main dressing sta- 
tion, the heavily wounded being carried by our 
orderlies on stretchers, where they met the ambu- 
lances and were conveyed to the division hospital 
six miles in the rear. 

The work was being carried on here satisfac- 
torily, and I started for the other dressing station 
a few hundred yards away in the forest. I was 
passing a huge pine-tree when I heard a voice 
from far overhead, faint above the roar of artil- 
lery, crying: "Meesterl Meester!" 

I looked up, and high up in the topmost 
branches, screened by the thick boughs, I made 
out an artillery oflficer perched on a little scaffold- 
ing nailed to the tree. He held a field telephone 
in his hand. The wires ran down the tree and 
off to the rear towards his battery. He was an 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 157 

observer, spotting the hits of the shells from his 
battery and correcting the range of the guns from 
his lofty perch. It was the same young officer 
whom I had seen in the observation point in the 
trenches on my first visit to them — the one who 
was so anxious to get the Boches who were fleeing 
from the old building in No Man's Land. 

He leaned far out from his dizzy perch, his 
face showing white against the dark foliage of 
the trees, and cupping his hands to his mouth, 
shouted down to me : *'Will you send an orderly 
up to me with a pail of hot tea ? I am very cold 
up " 

A strange, awful change came over his coun- 
tenance. As though by magic, a tiny dark spot 
appeared on his forehead just above his right eye 
— like the dark spot which appears on the white 
surface of a target in a shooting-gallery after the 
crack of a rifle. His lower jaw dropped, he 
grinned hideously down at me and then, very 
slowly, he began to sway forward. His arms 
dropped, the field telephone fell from his hands 
and hung dangling by its wire, and his body 
pitched forward off his seat and came crashing 
down through the branches, bouncing as it hit the 



158 SURGEON GROW 

thick limbs, inert and limp as a bag of meal, and 
fell with a sickening thud at my feet. 

I lifted the head, turning it so that I could see 
the face. It was crimson with blood pouring from 
the small dark hole just above the eyebrow. A 
bullet, possibly a wild bullet or one from the rifle 
of a sniper who had seen him through binoculars, 
had killed him instantly. That evening they 
buried him in the forest near the dressing station. 

The artillery kept up its fire and we expected 
it to continue until the next day. We decided that 
the Germans had been one day wrong in their 
prediction and we felt sure the artillery would 
spend at least eighteen hours in destroying the 
German barbed wire and machine-gun emplace- 
ments. 

About mid-day, however, we were astonished 
to receive word that the troops would go over the 
top at three that afternoon. The Germans were 
correct after all! More amazing to us than the 
accuracy of the German prediction was the fact 
that the Russian general staff had not changed the 
date of the attack after these notices had been 
dropped by the Germans. 

That only six hours' artillery preparation was 
ordered was also surprising to us, and many of 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 159 

the younger officers predicted that our troops 
would run their heads into a stone wall. 

The German shrapnel was bursting over the 
trees and the H E shells were tearing things up' 
as I made my way cautiously into the first line 
trenches about 2 130 p. M. The trenches were full 
of soldiers crouched down below the low parapets 
up to their knees in Icy water and mud, waiting 
for the signal to go over the top. 

I found Lieutenant Muhanoff with his company. 
He was smoking a cigarette and did not appear 
at all nervous at the impending action. 

*'We will just walk over and take the first 
couple of lines," he declared confidently. "Look 
at that artillery tearing them up. There won't 
be a man left In that trench," and through a loop- 
hole we could see that their first line was a welter 
of flying smoke and dirt. 

**I have here in this packet some money and a 
ring which belonged to my father," he said, hand- 
ing me a sealed and addressed paper package. 
"Will you see that it gets to my mother in Smo- 
lensk in case I don't come back?" 

*^onsense !" I exclaimed. "Of course you will 
come back! But I'll take the package and see that 
your mother receives it if you don't." 



i6o SURGEON GROW 

*'Thank you, dear friend," he replied. **And 
now, good-bye ! It is two minutes of three and I 
must get my men up, ready to go over." 

He walked away and spoke quietly to his men, 
where they sat about in little groups on the fire- 
step of the trench. He was beloved by all his 
soldiers and as they lined up along the trench wall 
I felt that they would follow him to hell if neces- 
sary. 

A shrill whistle sounded up and down the trench 
and they swarmed up the little ladders and ran, 
stooping low, through the passages cut in the 
barbed wire. Lieutenant Muhanoff gaily waved 
his hand to me as he leaped on the parapet. Long 
brown lines of men advancing in successive waves 
went quickly across the snow-covered field with 
loud ^'Hurrahs!" their bayonets flashing in the 
setting sun. 

They were hardly over the top when the Ger- 
man machine-guns and rifles turned a withering 
fire on them, the machine-guns hammering and the 
rifles crackling. 

Across the flat, white field they went, and every 
here and there a man would go down sprawling 
in the snow. The German barrage fire appeared 
as a haze of whirling smoke and dirt, partly hid- 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 161 

ing them as they went through it, and the earth 
shook with the violence of the explosions. The 
sprawling forms were like the foam that a reced- 
ing wave leaves on the sand as it sweeps back to 
its parent sea. Many came running or crawling 
back with all manner of wounds, as the advancing 
line became lost to sight in the tumbling, rolling 
fog of the barrage; but No Man's Land was 
covered with men who would never move again. 

I hurried back to the dressing station, for I 
knew there would be much work to do. Rumors 
reached us there as we worked — ^wild stories told 
by the wounded. Some said we had broken 
through the German defense, others that we had 
captured four lines of their trenches, while still 
others insisted that we had not even taken the 
first line trench, our attack having broken down 
and our men having been forced to retreat. 

The latter report proved to be the correct one, 
much to our sorrow. 

The firing quieted down slightly and Lieutenant 
Muhanoff came to the tent where I was wading 
about in a sea of wrecked humanity — a groaning, 
writhing sea lying there on the snow — working 
hurriedly to patch them up for the stretcher- 



i62 SURGEON GROW 

bearers to carry back to the main dressing station 
where the ambulances were. 

The Lieutenant looked as if he had been In a 
prize fight. His face was swollen and discolored, 
his glasses were gone, one eye was nearly closed, 
a cut gaped on his forehead, and his clothing was 
torn and bloody. 

"What's the matter? Have you been boxing?" 
I asked. 

"Yes; that's just about what you would call It. 
When we got over to their first line, there was 
hardly a German in It — only machine-gun crews 
and a few rifle men, and what was left of my com- 
pany quickly disposed of them with the bayonet. 
I started for the second line when I saw that we 
had easily won the first line, thinking that my men 
were following me. When I mounted the parapet 
of their support-trench, I saw it was full of Ger- 
mans, but I jumped in, firing my revolver as I 
leaped, and then I realized for the first time that 
I was alone ! 

"There were about fifteen Germans In that par- 
ticular sector of the trench and they jumped on me 
without any ceremony. One big fellow knocked 
me down with a blow from his rifle and the rest 
piled on me, pinning me to the ground and pum- 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 163 

meling me with their fists, for the confusion was 
so great and the trench was so close-packed that 
they could not use their bayonets. 

"I thought I was gone, when over the parapet 
leaped ten of my Siberians. They went at those 
Germans with their bayonets as well as they could, 
but the fighting was so close that it was more like 
an ordinary bar-room brawl, and after a great 
deal of hammer and tongs fighting, six of us finally 
broke loose and started back to the first line 
trench; but only four got back here, the other two 
being killed by machine-gun fire enroute." 

"How about the four others that jumped into 
the trench?" I asked. 

"They were killed right there !'' 

"And how many Germans did you fellows ac- 
count for?" 

"I don't know exactly. They lay around pretty 
thick, but some of them ran up the trench when 
my soldiers came over: they don't like our long 
bayonets." 

"How did your men know you were in danger?" 

"One of them had seen me disappear over the 
parapet and thought I had been taken prisoner. 
He got nine of his comrades together and they 
charged the trench to rescue me. It was a pretty 



ii64 SURGEON GROW 

brave thing to do, for they did not know how 
many Germans were there. The attack has been 
a failure, however. Of my company of two hun- 
dred men, only forty got back uninjured when we 
got the order to give up the captured line and 
retire. We were undoubtedly betrayed in this at- 
tack. The enemy had hundreds and hundreds of 
machine-guns in that first line all ready and wait- 
ing for us !'* 

He was greatly discouraged and downcast as I 
bound up the cut on his forehead. 

All that evening our artillery kept pounding 
away and reserve troops were brought up to re- 
place the shattered regiments who had been in the 
attack in the afternoon. They had suffered fright- 
ful losses. One regiment which had had four 
thousand men only a few hours before now had 
only about eight hundred! 

I went back to the main dressing station, which 
was swamped with wounded. Our forty ambu- 
lances, which could carry only two wounded lying 
down or four sitting up, were inadequate for the 
task of carrying them all back to the division hos- 
pital. The roads were frightful and the drivers 
had to walk their horses the entire distance, for 
even when they went slowly and carefully the suf- 




Wounded men arriving in crude two-wheeled ambulance, the best con- 
veyance known on the Russian front. The scarcity of even these was 
so great that often the wounded lay for from i6 to 24 hours in the snow 
before they could be moved. 




Surgeon Grow at the battle of Postovy, loading wounded into a little 
two-wheeled cart which served as ambulance. 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 165 

fering of the wounded as they bounced about in 
those rough carts was terrible. 

Their route along the road was accompanied 
by heart-rending cries of agony which could be 
heard several hundred yards from the roadside. 
The cold was intense, and as our tent could not 
accommodate all the wounded, many had to lie 
in the snow wrapped in such poor blankets as we 
could supply. At times there were as many as a 
hundred lying in the snow outside the tent, many 
of them having only their wet overcoats to pro- 
tect them against the cold ! 

During the evening, I had a great many emer- 
gency operations to do. I was operating on one 
poor fellow who had had a leg completely torn 
off by a shell fragment. Bright red streams of 
blood were spurting from several arteries in the 
torn stump and it was necessary to catch the bleed- 
ing vessels with delicate forceps and tie them up 
with strands of catgut. Great haste and a steady 
hand were necessary to complete the work in time 
to save his life. He was lying on the raised 
stretcher which served as an operating table and 
Nicholi was giving ether. Metia was in one of 
the advance dressing stations. I had no other 
trained assistants. 



i66 SURGEON GROW 

A new orderly, who had been In the army only 
a few days before this big fight and who had never 
been under shell fire, was holding a candle so that 
I could see to catch the elusive arteries with the 
forceps. We could use no other light for fear It 
would attract the attention of the enemy and bring 
a shower of shells from their artillery on the many 
wounded who lay about the tent. 

Arteries are elastic and when cut recede into 
the tissues as if they were made of rubber. It was 
difficult to find them In the fiickering light of the 
candle, and the life blood of the soldier, whose 
pulse I could scarcely feel, was fast ebbing away. 
Those bleeding points had to be stopped at once 
or he would die= 

I was trying desperately to catch one of the 
arteries which was throwing a bright red jet of 
blood Into my face as I leaned over when I heard 
the screeching approach of a German shell. It 
seemed to be coming straight down on the tent — 
one of those big howitzer shells with a high trajec- 
tory coming from far up In the sky. I could hear 
it for a long time — at least it seemed a long time 
although in reahty only a matter of seconds. 

The new orderly heard It too and his hand 
began to shake. The nearer the shell came the 



THE BATTLE OF POSTOVY 167 

worse It shook, and when the shell exploded close 
to the tent and great jagged pieces came hum- 
ming and tearing their way through the canvas 
above our heads, he gave a convulsive shudder 
and dropped the candle and we were in darkness. 

I called sharply for a light and he fumbled 
around and found a match and. got the candle 
going again. All the time the wounded man was 
bleeding furiously. 

The orderly was a great hulking fellow, well 
over six feet in height, and he must have weighed 
two hundred and forty pounds. 

I had found several of those large bleeders and 
tied them when I heard another of those infernal 
shells coming again. Once more the candle 
started to shake and once more we were in dark- 
ness when the shell burst. My nerves were now 
gone with the effort of controlling my own hands 
and keeping them from trembling, for the work 
was so fine that a tremor would have defeated my 
purpose. I was badly frightened myself and it 
was only by a great effort that I kept my hands 
steady. The second shell had hit so close that 
the tent rocked with the concussion and cold air 
was pouring in through numerous jagged 'rents. 

I dismissed the orderly and shouted for Michael 



i68 SURGEON GROW 

to come in. He was outside, helping to load 
wounded into the ambulances. Mike proved to 
be more hardened and when the next shell came 
in we at least had light to work by. We finally 
checked the bleeding and started the wounded man 
back for the divisional hospital, well wrapped in 
blankets, with enough of the precious life-blood 
In his body to keep him going till he reached the 
point where further restorative measures could be 
applied. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE DOGS OF WAR 

^T*HE big German guns were shelling the Col- 
■*" oneFs double battery, which, as I have men- 
tioned, was located very near our tent. They 
were unable to silence either the battery or the 
Colonel, for I could hear his voice bawling out 
orders to his men above the roar of hundreds of 
guns and the screech of flying shells. Sometimes 
he would let go with his entire sixteen guns simul- 
taneously. At other times he would fire them one 
after the other in rapid succession. 

The muzzles of the guns were pointed directly 
at our tent, the shells flying not a hundred feet 
above our ridge-pole, and when he fired a salvo 
the tent-wall would actually bulge in on the side 
toward the battery, candles would be extinguished, 
and my head, which was splitting from the noise, 
would rock from the concussion. 

The wounded who were now brought In by our 
169 



lyo SURGEON GROW 

bearers were in frightful condition. They were 
the heavily wounded who had been lying in the 
snow in No Man's Land unable to move. There 
were many abdominal and brain wounds and all 
of them were nearly frozen from the cold. 

As night came on, our bearers would crawl cau- 
tiously out between the lines and search in the 
darkness for these poor fellows. Occasionally a 
German machine-gun would break forth in a 
spasm of firing. This meant that they had de- 
tected a searching party and had turned a ma- 
chine-gun on them, or, in the flare of a rocket, 
they had seen some wounded Russian dragging 
himself painfully over the snow. They take no 
chances in allowing wounded to get back to their 
own lines. 

We had with us three Airedale terriers. They 
were trained to locate the wounded in thickets and 
brushy places where they could not be seen by our 
searching parties, who, for obvious reasons, can- 
not carry any light. 

About two o'clock we received word that a 
wounded man had managed to crawl in from be- 
tween the lines and had reported that some badly 
wounded soldiers were lying in a thicket and were 
perishing in the cold. He had passed several of 



THE DOGS OF WAR 171 

them as he crawled painfully by. They were too 
weak to move but displayed signs of life. 

I summoned the three orderlies who had charge 
of the dogs, and, taking twelve stretcher-bearers, 
hurried to our trenches opposite the point indi- 
cated. The weather had moderated slightly and 
the snow was melting a little, but it was one of 
those damp, penetrating nights when the cold 
seems to go right through to the bone. 

As we splashed through a communication 
trench, the dogs tugging at their leashes, I thought 
of those poor devils lying out there, suffering all 
kinds of anguish and without any hope of being 
rescued. 

It was as dark as a pit as we entered the first- 
line trenches. They were full of soldiers sitting 
about shivering In the cold and waiting for the 
next order to attack. 

In the occasional flicker of a rocket I could 
make out, half-way between our trenches and the 
Germans', a dark patch of scrubby weeds and 
stunted bushes. In this little thicket lay the 
wounded. 

The orderhes who had charge of the dogs lifted 
them up on the parapet, unsnapped their leashes, 
and spoke a sharp word of command: ''Begone!" 



172 SURGEON GROW 

The dogs disappeared In the darkness of No 
Man's Land and were gone for quite a long time. 
I thought at first that they must have gone astray 
or that one of those scattering volleys from the 
German trenches had ended their mission of 
rescue. 

Tang! 

Something In our entanglements had struck a 
projecting piece of wire directly In front of me. 
A rocket shot up, and over the parapet a yard to 
my right I saw a shaggy head peering down. The 
dog held something In his mouth. I heard him 
whine softly. One of the orderlies reached up 
to get him and he snarled savagely and jumped 
back. It was not his master and he was trained 
when on duty to keep away from any other person. 

Another orderly stepped up on the firestep and 
spoke to him, and he whimpered softly and came 
to his master, who lifted him down. 

In the light of my electric torch I saw that he 
held in his mouth a crumpled, blood-stained cap. 
His master took the cap In his hand, snapped the 
leash on the dog's collar, lifted him up on the 
parapet and crawled up after him, followed by 
two stretcher-bearers. 

The dog led them out through the barbed wire, 



THE DOGS OF WAR 173 

tugging at his leash, and I followed the little party, 
curious to see whether he would find the owner 
of that cap. 

I could distinguish their dim forms as they 
crawled on hands and knees, dragging the rolled- 
up stretcher after them. I followed, also crawl- 
ing, and when a rocket soared up and cast its 
ghostly light over the field, we all ''froze," lying 
perfectly flat in the snow until the light died out. 

I heard the dry grass crackle as they wormed 
their way into the thicket and I thought that we 
must be very close to the German lines. Several 
bullets struck the weeds about me. 

My hand touched something which felt like a 
piece of woolen cloth in the weeds and I saw a 
dark object lying partly concealed in the thicket. 
I reached out and felt a human arm — it was hard 
and stiff and the clutched hand was Icy. I tried 
to move the arm, but it was rigid and I knew that 
there was no life In that cold body. 

I crawled hurriedly on through the bush and 
found the little party kneeling about another dark 
object sprawled in the snow. The body was still 
warm but the hands were very cold and at the 
wrist I could feel only a tiny trickle of pulse. I 
passed my hand up to his head. The cap was 



174 SURGEON GROW 

gone and the hair was stiff and matted with frozen 
blood, but just above the ear I felt a warm moist 
spot. I knew that this was the wounded point 
and that the fresh blood was oozing forth. The 
bullet had entered the brain and the soldier was 
unconscious, but it was evidently the man whose 
cap the dog had brought to our trenches. 

One of the orderlies had a first aid kit, and we 
hurriedly put on a dressing to keep the dirt out. 
We slid him on to the stretcher and started back, 
crawling and dragging the stretcher after us. 

Our progress was necessarily very slow, for 
with each rocket we had to lie quiet. The Ger- 
man trenches were not more than forty yards 
away. Finally, however, we reached our wire and 
passed through one of the lanes which had been 
cut to let the attacking waves through. 

The stretcher was carefully passed down to 
waiting hands below, and the wounded man 
wrapped in blankets, and we started back for the 
dressing station. 

I learned that the other two dogs had returned 
in the meantime, one with a cap and the other 
with a piece of cloth ripped by his fangs from a 
wounded man's overcoat. The dogs are trained 
to tear something from the soldier's garments if 




Sanitary do^s, or dogs of war. They were trained to search for the 
wounded and guide rescuers to them. 




This war dog has located a wounded man and is taking his hat as iden- 
tification and means of bringing aid. 



THE DOGS OF WAR 175 

they cannot find a cap or glove. Whatever the 
dog brings back Is used to refresh its memory 
when the rescue party starts after the wounded 
man, the orderly passing It across the animal's 
nose whenever he falters. 

One of the rescue parties returned with an ab- 
dominal case, a bad one, so weak that I could 
scarcely detect a sign of life. 

*'Do the dogs ever take you to dead bodies?" 
I asked the orderly. 

"No, Excellency, never," he replied. "They 
sometimes lead us to bodies which we think have 
no life In them, but when we bring them back the 
doctors, by careful examination, always find a 
spark though often very feeble. It is purely a 
matter of Instinct, which, in this instance, is far 
more effective than man's reasoning powers." 

Presently a third party returned with a man 
with a broken thigh. He was almost lifeles from 
exposure and shock. 

So the work went on until we had recovered 
fourteen wounded. Then one of the dogs re- 
turned without anything in his mouth. He was 
sent back again and while he was gone another 
returned, also without any "evidence." When, 
after a little while, all three dogs stuck their 



176 SURGEON GROW 

shaggy heads over the parapet with nothing in 
their mouths we were tolerably sure that there 
were no more wounded Russians in the thicket. 

By that time the first gray light of dawn was 
struggling to dispel the night. As I went back to 
the main dressing station through the ghostly for- 
est, our artillery was pounding furiously at the 
German lines. Then came the infernal crackle of 
rifles and the tack! tack! of machine-guns and the 
flickering of rockets as another wave of our in- 
fantry went over the top in a second desperate 
attack to break the German lines. As I pictured 
the inrush of the flowing stream of wounded pour- 
ing down the road through the forest to our dress- 
ing stations, I realized that there would be little 
rest for me that day. 



CHAPTER XV 

SOUND SLEEPERS 

INVENTS of that day are blurred in my mind. 
'^ I was so tired that the only impression I re- 
tained was of an apparently endles round of work. 
Wounded, wounded, and'then more wounded! I 
have a dim picture of them lying patiently in the 
tent, which was soon overflowing, and a perfect 
sea of them in the wet snow outside. It was a 
case of plodding through operations with dogged 
perseverance — here a hurried amputation, there a 
brain operation or an abdominal section — on and 
on without end. In a night's work of that de- 
scription, a man performs more operations and 
treats more cases than the busiest practitioner sees 
in a month of private practice, and while condi- 
tions work havoc with technique, such an experi- 
ence is a wonderful developer of resourcefulness. 
I remember hearing the same contradictory ac- 
counts of how our attack was faring through the 

177 



178 SURGEON GROW 

early morning mists and of the final authoritative 
news that we had failed again and, after sustain- 
ing frightful losses, had been forced to give up the 
German first-line in the face of a stiff counter- 
attack. 

Toward late afternoon we had most of the 
wounded attended to. Our poor ambulance 
horses were ready to drop. They had been going 
continuously for twenty-four hours. 

The old Colonel of the artillery dropped in to 
see how we were faring. His fur-coat looked 
like the top of a pepper-box where it was shot full 
of holes from the fragments of an HE shell. 
The thick leather had checked the force of the 
little pieces of steel and they had scarcely gone 
through his inside clothing. 

"No, it didn't hurt me," the old fellow yelled, 
in answer to my inquiry, *'but it killed one of my 
cows, damn them!" The curse evidently referred 
to the Germans, not to the cows, for the loss of 
the one was a sad blow to the Colonel — so much 
so, indeed, that he mentioned only incidently, as 
he left to go back to his battery, that the same 
shell had accounted for ten of his men — four 
killed and six wounded! 

"I'll pound them to pieces to-night!" he yelled. 



SOUND SLEEPERS 179 

*The damned Nemets — I'll pound them to 
pieces!'* 

His battery certainly made enough noise to 
pound anything to pieces, and I knew it was no 
use trying to get any sleep In that vicinity that 
night. As evening approached, therefore, and 
the last of the wounded had started on his jour- 
ney to the divisional hospital, I walked back to a 
group of deserted houses that I knew of, leaving 
word with Mike to call for me if a third attack 
started or more wounded arrived. 

I took a blanket with me, as it promised to be 
cold sleeping in an uninhabited house. It was just 
getting dark when I approached the peasant's cot- 
tage near which stood a barn and several small 
outhouses. The cottage had been partly wrecked 
by a German shell and the thatched roof was 
caved in and all the windows were broken by the 
explosion. It was very desolate looking and 
gloomy, but at any rate the noise was not so bad 
and I figured I could get some sleep. 

The barn looked a little better than the house^ 
and I thought I would take a look at It. I opened 
the low door and peered into what had formerly 
been a storeroom for tools and farming utensils. 
It was quite dark in there. The odor of old 



i8o SURGEON GROW 

straw assailed my nostrils. As I stepped in, my 
foot sunk in a bed of dry chaff, and it seemed like 
a good place to sleep after all. 

As my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, 
I noticed a number of soldiers stretched out on 
the straw. There were eight or ten of them lying 
about in the postures that men assume when thor- 
oughly exhausted. They had thrown themselves 
down to snatch a few hours' sleep. 1 figured that 
they were too tired to be easily awakened, but I 
picked my way quietly between them, treading 
softly on the yielding straw; and selecting an un- 
occupied spot between two of the slumbering 
forms, I stretched out, rolled myself up in my 
blanket and was soon sound asleep. The enor- 
mous amount of work and the excitement of the 
last few days, combined with the lack of sleep, 
had left me pretty well exhausted, and I think 
I would have slept for the next twenty-four hours 
at least if I had not been awakened — perhaps an 
hour after I had lain down — by a terrific crash — 
the smashing detonation of a shell close to the 
barn. 

I lay listening, startled by the explosion, and 
was just falling to sleep again when a second shell 
came screeching down and another crash shook the 



SOUND SLEEPERS 181 

old barn. I wondered what would happen to us 
all if the Germans dropped a shell right on the 
barn, and just then a third shell exploded and I 
was covered with a shower of dirt and straw, a 
large hole appearing in the roof of the barn at 
the farthermost end where the shell had scraped 
the thatch of the roof off as it flew over and hit 
in the field beyond. 

Strangely enough, the explosions had not awak- 
ened the others or, if they had, they had fallen off 
to sleep again at once. 

It occurred to me, however, that the Germans 
were now firing directly at the barn, probably fig- 
uring that It was occupied by reserves, and that 
the next shell would probably finish all of us, and 
I decided that I would clear out. 

*We had better get out of here!^* I yelled In 
Russian. 

The soldiers didn't budge. 

*'Come on, now!'' I repeated. *'Wake up, 
Galoopchicks ; we've got to get out of here !" And 
I reached out and clutched the one nearest me by 
the coat and shook him and shouted in his ear. 
Still he didn't budge. 

A startling truth began to dawn on my drowsy 
senses. I felt in my pocket for my electric torch 



i82 SURGEON GROW 

and flashed Its white beam on him. His face was 
the color of ashes, his eyes stared at me with a 
fishy stare, his lips were drawn In an awful grin, 
he was dead ! I turned the light on the others — » 
dead! Every one stark dead! My companions 
were corpses — I was sleeping In a mortuary ! 

I could feel my hair bristle, and a cold chill ran 
down my spine, as I jumped up, leaped over sev- 
eral still forms, and bolted for the door. 

As I scurried away, I heard again the moaning 
call approaching nearer and nearer out of the 
inky sky. I crouched low as It crashed and looked 
back over my shoulder. The old barn was lit up 
by a hellish glare which revealed a whirling mass 
of boards and smoke as It flew apart like a pack 
of cards. The last shell had been a clean hit, 
right into the center of the old structure — in the 
room of the dead. 

I hurried back to the dressing station, stum- 
bling along through the gloomy pine forest to the 
road. The shouting of the drivers of some artil- 
lery limbers, loaded with shells, which came clank- 
ing down the road, was pleasant music to my ears. 

When I arrived at the tent Michael asked me 
if It had been too cold to sleep In the old house, 
and I told him of my silent companions. 



SOUND SLEEPERS 183 

"They were probably placed there until to-mor- 
row when they were to be buried," he explained. 
"Meester sleep here In the tent and if the wounded 
come I shall call him." 

I lay down on my blankets and fell sound asleep 
once more. I did not wake until morning. When 
I opened my eyes, I noticed several fresh jagged 
holes In the tent and asked Mike about them. 

"Two shells hit close to the tent last night/' he 
replied; "but you were asleep and I didn't call 
you, as no more came." 

During the morning Colonel Starik called and 
told me I had better move the dressing station 
back half a mile, as he considered it very danger- 
ous to remain v/here we were. 

To have moved back, however, would have 
made It necessary for the wounded and our 
stretcher-bearers to walk just so much farther and 
we decided to stay where we were. Later I was 
to learn how much wiser It would have been to 
have heeded the Colonel's warning. 

The Colonel was very much discouraged as to 
the outcome of this battle. 

"We shall probably attack again to-night," he 
said. "We'll have more reserves up then. There 
will be some further artillery preparation, but I 



!i84 SURGEON GROW 

think It very foolish to continue. They are fully 
prepared for us and I don't think we have a chance 
of breaking through. I've lost over two-thirds of 
my regiment!" 

Lieutenant Muhanoff dropped in a little later. 
His regiment was so depleted that it had been 
sent into reserve, and the Lieutenant had plenty 
of time at his command. I was glad that he was 
out of it, temporarily at any rate, as I was becom- 
ing very fond of him. 

*'Isn't it wonderful how our soldiers go into the 
attack again and again without flinching?" he 
asked, admiringly. ''Each new regiment that 
comes up knows, of course, of the enormous losses 
of the one whose place they are taking, and yet 
they enter the fight with the utmost bravery. As 
I came up the road I passed our fifth regiment 
going into reserve, and I don't believe there was 
one thousand men left out of the original four 
thousand." 

I could but agree with him, for I had learned 
to respect these sturdy peasant soldiers. 

Late in the afternoon a German plane soared 
over our trenches, high up in the blue sky, accom- 
panied on its course by the cotton-like puffs of 
shrapnel from our anti-aircraft guns. The far-off 



SOUND SLEEPERS 185 

drone of his motor could be heard as he circled 
about, dropping slightly near the earth as he 
passed directly over our tent. 

I wondered if he could make us out nestling 
down there among the pines or if he could see 
through our pine-bough camouflage. 

I retired early that night, for there would prob- 
ably be an attack at daybreak and I would have 
to be about early to prepare for the new crop of 
wounded. Some time in the night I heard our 
artillery open up an intense fire, but dropped off 
to sleep again despite the noise, and with never 
an inkling of what was in store for me on the 
morrow. 



CHAPTER XVI 

INJURED BY A SHELL 

T WAS awakened by Mike shaking me and shout- 
Ing in my ear. 

"Quick, Meester, to the blindage (bomb- 
proof) !" he was yelling excitedly. "German 
shoot 'em up like hell!" 

They surely were shooting us up I I could hear 
the distant roar of their artillery, with the pecu- 
liar double reports loom-boom blurred into a con- 
stant roll of drum-fire. Their shells were liter- 
ally sweeping the forest. A constant stream was 
pouring in, whistling and crashing, and I could 
hear their fragments buzzing through the air like 
a swarm of angry bees, and the sound of falling 
limbs and branches. Several pieces struck the 
tent, ripping through the canvas and leaving 
jagged holes. 

I jumped up and followed Mike out of the tent 
and we plunged through the darkness for a little 

i86 



INJURED BY A SHELL 187 

bomb-proof which my orderlies had dug In the 
sodden ground near the tent. 

It was a tiny affair about five feet square and 
about four feet deep. It had a fairly strong roof 
of logs and dirt but It was half full of melted 
snow-water. 

*'Come, Meester, come quick!" shouted Mike 
above the uproar, as we heard the wall of an- 
other shell coming down. I figured that It would 
be very close this time as I leaped over a dead 
horse and made for the sound of Mike's voice in 
the darkness ahead. 

There was a terrific blinding flash right at my 
side, and I knew no more. 

The first sensation I had on recovering con- 
sciousness was a sharp pain In my head, and the 
second of being In icy water up to my waist, but 
the third and most startling thing was the abso- 
lute stillness. 

I looked about me. Above, not a foot from 
my face, were a number of logs placed close to- 
gether. Then I saw a hand holding a candle and 
then Mike's face, as white as chalk, peering down 
at me, with tears streaming from his eyes. 

I put out my hand, groping about, and came in 
contact with Icy water, which covered the lower 



i88 SURGEON GROW 

part of my body. Then I realized that I was in 
the little bomb-proof and that Mike was holding 
me up, keeping my face and chest out of the water 
with one arm and holding the lighted candle with 
his other. 

His lips moved but 1 heard no sound, neither 
could I hear the artillery — it was silent as a tomb. 
I wondered why It was so still, for I recalled the 
noise of an instant before. 

I spoke to Mike, asking him if they had stopped 
shelling us — and I could not hear my own voice 1 

Apparently I was stone-deaf ! I put my fingers 
in my ears and they came away slightly blood- 
stained. Then I realized that the explosion had 
broken my ear-drums. 

Mike started to crawl out of the bomb-proof, 
dragging me with him, but I told him I was quite 
able to walk, and when I got out I stood up un- 
assisted, feeling only a little weak. There was a 
slight buzzing in my ears. 

When we got back to our tent, I noticed that 
there were several small tears in my coat just over 
the left chest and then I felt a stinging sensation 
at this point. Examination revealed several small 
fragments of steel imbedded in the skin which 



INJURED BY A SHELL 189 

Mike pulled out with forceps, touching the bleed- 
ing points with Iodine. 

Dawn was showing Its first gray light by this 
time and I decided to visit the scene of the explo- 
sion which had felled me. A big tree lying on the 
ground at this point told me the story. 

The shell had come directly toward me but had 
struck the tree five feet above the ground. It had 
exploded where It struck, cutting the tree entirely 
off at this point, which was about twenty inches in 
diameter. The tree had toppled over but the 
force of the shell had carried the trunk forward 
toward me, the top falling in the opposite direc- 
tion. I had been about four feet from the tree 
when the shell struck and the force of the explo- 
sion had hurled me to the ground. The frag- 
ments, coming through twenty inches of tough 
green wood, had lost their velocity and did not 
have force enough to go through my skin. 

Had I been out of line of the tree I would no 
doubt have been killed instantly. As it was, the 
only injury I suffered was the rupturing of my 
ear-drums and the condition known as shell-shock 
due to dynamic air pressure, which sometimes 
amounts to as much as ten tons to the square yard 
in the vicinity of a large shell when It explodes. 



190 SURGEON GROW 

I had seen many cases of ruptured ear-drums and 
knew that they all healed up and hearing was fully 
restored within two or three weeks, so I consid- 
ered myself very lucky. 

When I recovered my hearing some two weeks 
later, Mike told me his part of the story. 

He had been some thirty feet in front of me, 
ready to dive into the bomb-proof, when he heard 
the shell coming. He called to me to hurry and 
jumped into the bomb-proof just as the shell ex- 
ploded. When I did not arrive, he concluded I 
had been killed or wounded and came to look for 
me. Shells were breaking all about, but he ran 
to where I had been and found me lying close to 
the dead horse. Then he had dragged me back 
to the bomb-proof through a perfect hail of fly- 
ing fragments and had succeeded in getting me 
inside, holding my face above the water which was 
a foot deep, while he contrived to light a candle 
with the other hand. 

Although he could not find any wounds by the 
light of the candle, he thought I was dead. Most 
of the Russian orderlies become greatly attached 
to the officers they serve and Mike was not an 
exception in this case : hence the tear-stained face 
which I saw when I opened my eyes. He was a 



INJURED BY A SHELL 191 

brave, faithful fellow, and I probably owe my 
life to his devotion, for if he had allowed me to 
lie where I had fallen, I should undoubtedly have 
been struck by pieces of shells, several of which 
landed close by. 

The following day I decided to follow the sug- 
gestion the Colonel had made and move my dress- 
ing station a half mile back. The aeroplane which 
had flown over the day before had possibly spotted 
our tent and the German artillery might give us 
another bombardment any moment — perhaps 
worse than the one we had gone through. 

While we were packing up, I received word 
from Colonel Kalpaschnecoff that our division was 
to go into reserve and that we should move back 
to our base in the village about eight miles from 
the Hne. 

Our division had lost over one-half its men and 
was unable to continue the offensive. It would be 
replaced by one of the divisions in reserve, drawn 
from one of the five army corps commanded by 
General Pleschcoff. 

I was glad that there was to be no more work, 
for my head was bothering me a great deal and 
it was difficult to "carry on" on account of my 
absolute deafness. 



192 SURGEON GROW 

Late In the afternoon we started with our 
long line of ambulances and transports, hoping 
to cross the exposed road in the dusk of the eve- 
ning when the German observers would be un- 
able to make us out. 

The day had been warm and sunny and had 
converted the road into rivers of mud and snow- 
water up to the hubs of the ambulances. The 
setting sun cast Its long rays over the marshes 
and flooded fields and there was a feeling of 
spring in the air. A flock of wild geese went honk- 
ing far overhead, winging their way steadily 
northward. 

When we passed the group of deserted houses 
where I had slept with my silent companions two 
nights before, I saw that a shell had completely 
demolished the old barn and that only a tumbled 
mass of boards and rafters remained. 

The roadside was dotted with little crosses 
erected over the graves of soldiers who had died 
of their wounds en route to the divisional hos- 
pital, for we were jolting down the same road we 
had sent the wounded over. 

The roads were blocked with limbers loaded 
with shells to feed the guns, the horses straining 
at the traces knee-deep In mud and water, trying 



INJURED BY A SHELL 193 

to pull the heavy carts, the drivers yelling and fly- 
ing the whip, and our progress was slow. 

As evening approached we crossed the open 
field where we had been shelled coming in and 
saw dozens of horses sprawled out along the road- 
side. We passed one of our battalions silently 
splashing through the Icy water, tired and bedrag- 
gled from three days of constant fighting, their 
faces white and drawn as they trudged back to 
the reserve billets. They did not march in order 
but in a straggling line, picking their way through 
the water-covered fields to avoid the mud of the 
road, and there was not three hundred of the 
original twelve hundred left! 

Just before we entered the forest beyond the 
field, I turned in my saddle and looked back 
toward the positions for the last time. 

Another bombardment was on, and while I 
could not hear It, I could feel the heavy air vibra- 
tions as it rolled in drum-fire, and could see the 
rockets rise, flickering over the dark forest which 
lay between. A gray haze of smoke stretched 
above the tree-tops, dimly visible in the fast fad- 
ing light, marking the barrage. 

I turned, and touching my horse lightly with 
my spurs, passed into the forest, the trees shut- 



194 SURGEON GROW 

ting off my last view of that great battle. It 
ended In failure so far as advancing our lines was 
concerned, but it served to divert a great number 
of German troops from our hard-pressed French 
allies at Verdun — and perhaps that achievement 
was worth all it cost. In that battle we lost half 
of our army corps of 50,000 men; and other corps 
which were engaged before it was over — it lasted 
several days after I left — also lost heavily. On 
our side there were thirteen attacks of importance. 
It required men with nerves of steel to charge 
across that hell of No Man's Land, but those 
Russian peasant soldiers did it time after time. 
They realized that it was almost sure death to 
do so, but there was no flinching. Many were 
killed In the reserve positions without even a rifle 
in their hands ; for because of the machinations of 
pro-German plotters in Petrograd our troops 
never had suflicient rifles. Many times they had 
to wait until rifles taken from the wounded could 
be given to them. There is nothing which will 
break the morale of troops so quickly as to be 
under shell fire without a weapon of defense in 
their hands. Then, too, the knowledge that they 
had been betrayed to the Germans, that they had 
known for weeks before of our plans and had 




C/3 i^ 



INJURED BY A SHELL 195 

concentrated such an overwhelming amount of 
guns and men at this point to break down our 
attacks, had a most depressing effect. The won- 
der of it was that our troops attacked at all in 
the face of such discouragement. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE MEDAL OF ST. GEORGE 

13 ACK In the peaceful little village, with straw- 
■*^ thatched cabins, the sounds of the bitter fight- 
ing raging In the forest and swamps along the 
front came to us like distant thunder. The village 
was a perfect haven of rest to our fagged brains, 
worn almost to the breaklng-point by the excite- 
ment and nervous strain of the past week. 

The spring was just beginning to dispel the 
long stern winter and the smell of fresh earth and 
new budding life was In the air. The sound of 
running water told us that the iron fetters of the 
Frost King had been broken. 

My hearing gradually came back and the noises 
in my head cleared up, but I was still nervous 
from the shock of the exploding shell. 

One day Colonel Kalpaschnecoff came to me 
and with a twinkle In his brown eyes, said: "A 
personage, one of the Grand Dukes, Is coming to 
our corps bearing the personal thanks of the Em- 

196 



THE MEDAL OF ST. GEORGE 197 

peror to the soldiers and officers of the First 
Siberian Army Corps for their valiant efforts in 
the fighting of last week. I was ordered by Gen- 
eral Pleschcoff to tell you that your presence would 
be required on the field when the troops are re- 
viewed by His High Excellency, the Grand 
Duke." 

"What has that got to do with me?" I asked 
in astonishment. 

**I presume General Pleschcoff desires your 
presence to lend eclat to the occasion," he replied, 
smiling. "Anyway, be sure to be on hand, dress 
up In your best duds, and don't forget it's sched- 
uled for the day after to-morrow at 2 130 p. M.'* 

I went to the review and stood with the officers 
of the stafF, and heard the High Personage speak 
a few words of praise to our men, who were 
drawn up in a great hollow square. The regi- 
ments were dwindled to a mere handful of their 
former numbers, and some companies had no offi- 
cers at all to command the thirty or forty sur- 
vivors — companies which had numbered two hun- 
dred men two weeks before. 

Certain soldiers were called by name and 
stepped out of line, advanced to the center of the 
field, and stood at attention before the Personage. 



198 SURGEON GROW 

Medals and crosses, dangling from ribbons of 
orange and black, were pinned to their left breasts 
over the heart. 

More kind words were spoken by the Personage 
and General Pleschcoif, and then the soldiers sa- 
luted, wheeled, and marched stiffly back Into the 
ranks. 

Certain officers were then called by name and 
stepped Into the field, where little white crosses 
suspended from orange and black ribbons were 
similarly pinned to their breasts. 

Among the names called was a strangely for- 
eign one and I felt the Colonel push me forward 
and say: "Hurry! That's you! Don't forget 
to salute with the right hand!" 

So I walked out and stood at attention and the 
Personage smiled and said: 

"Malcom Alvaovltch Grow, you have been 
mentioned by the commander of the first division 
in despatches to our Emperor. These despatches 
told how you stuck to your post through most try- 
ing circumstances, caring for our wounded Rus- 
sians, although warned by Colonel Starik to retire, 
and how you set for your orderlies and for our 
soldiers an example of devotion to duty and 
bravery. For this the Emperor desires that I 



THE MEDAL OF ST. GEORGE 199 

thank you and present to you the medal of St. 
George.'' 

Then he pinned the medal on my left breast and 
kissed me on both cheeks, as did General Plesch- 
coff. 

I was too astonished to struggle, as would have 
become a true American, and I don't remember 
saluting, but the Colonel told me afterward that 
I did. As I walked off the field I heard dimly a 
roaring sound which I took to be the cheering of 
a large number of men, but I am not sure, for my 
hearing had not quite returned. 

When I got back to where the officers were 
grouped I had to endure some more kissing by 
various bearded individuals. 

A few days later Colonel Kalpaschnecoff asked 
me if I would like to go to America for a short 
leave of absence. 

"You have been pretty well knocked about by 
that shell," he argued, "and the muddy season is 
at hand. The corps has lost half its men and 
won't be able to fight again for at least two 
months. We'll stay in reserve, filling up the gaps 
in the ranks for that length of time anyway, and 
I see no reason why you should not go." 



200 SURGEON GROW 

I didn't either, and I hastily packed up and 
started for Petrograd. 

I left our village at ten oVlock at night, riding 
the twenty versts to the station on horseback and 
there collecting my luggage which had been sent 
ahead by cart. 

The Easter holidays were approaching and the 
trains were crowded with officers going home to 
celebrate the greatest of Russian holidays with 
their friends and families. 

Many soldiers had also been given a furlough, 
and the third and fourth class waiting-room was 
crowded with soldiers sleeping on the floor and 
packed so tightly that one could scarcely walk. 
The first and second class waiting-room was nearly 
as congested, although the officers did not sleep 
on the floors. 

The train was so crowded that we had to stand 
in the aisles. I stood for seventeen hours in all, 
sleeping part of the time as I stood. After a 
journey of several days, during part of which, of 
course, I managed to get a seat, I finally came to 
Petrograd. There I had to wait eight days be- 
fore I succeeded in getting permission to leave 
the country. My trip through Finland, Norway 



THE MEDAL OF ST. GEORGE 201 

and Sweden to Christiana where I took passage 
for America was without special incident 

I spent three delightful weeks in my own coun- 
try and returned to Russia via Archangel, arriv- 
ing at that port in early June, 19 16. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 

A S we reached the entrance of the White Sea^ 
we received reports of the Austrian concen- 
tration on the Italian front, how they had ad- 
vanced to the edge of the plains and how Brusi- 
loff's smashing drive into Austria through Galicia 
and the Carpathians, with the capture of large 
numbers of prisoners, had caused such pressure 
on Austria that she had been obliged to withdraw 
her divisions from the Italian front and send them 
north against the Russians. This released the 
pressure in Italy and gave her time to bring up 
troops and stem the Austrian advance. 

I felt sure that my corps would get into this 
action, and I was anxious to rejoin it. I lost no 
time in getting to Petrograd, therefore, and after 
interviewing the commandant of the railroad sta- 
tion there I was able to secure a place-card for a 
berth on the train going to the front with very 
little delay. 

202 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 203 

At the little station ten miles back of the line 
where our troops were in the trenches south of 

Lake , I was met by the old victoria driven 

by Michael, my orderly. 

He was overjoyed at seeing me back and in- 
quired If my hearing had been completely restored 
after the shell shock. 

"I think we'll have a big fight in a few days," 
he said. 

I could hear the artillery booming in steady 
drum-fire In the positions twenty miles away to 
the west. 

The roads, now dry and In good condition, 
were filled with transport wagons hauling sup- 
plies to the troops. I was struck by the number 
of little colts which trotted along on their stilt- 
like legs beside their mothers who pulled at the 
shafts of the heavy carts. They were nearly all 
the same size and age — born in the spring of the 
year. Some of the very youngest were so weak 
that the kindly drivers, seeing they had grown 
tired, had lifted them up In the carts and they 
were riding along, gazing out over the side with 
their great dark eyes, apparently quite content. 
Nearly every cart had one of these youngsters 
either riding In the box or running alongside. 



204 SURGEON GROW 

When they reach a sufficient age they are sent to 
great breeding stations, where they are reared and 
broken to harness or used for cavalry horses. 
The Russians had ten milli£)n horses at the out- 
break of the war, but at the end of two years of 
warfare this number had been sadly depleted and 
every effort was being made to increase it. 

Our base was in a little village four miles back 
of the lines, in a house belonging to the village 
priest. As soon as I arrived we dined out of 
doors beneath a great vine which climbed over a 
lattice work. 

While we were seated at dinner a German plane 
flew over. Our anti-aircraft guns were firing at 
it and their tiny white puffs of shrapnel dotted the 
sky overhead, eight thousand feet in the air. Sud- 
denly we heard a whir-r-r-r-r from above, which 
became louder as it approached. We thought the 
German had dropped a bomb and we waited 
tensely for the explosion. 

The priest sat directly opposite me and as I 
glanced at him I was struck at the set expression 
of his face and the deathly pallor. He held a 
fork poised in his hand, half-way to his mouth. 

The missile landed with a loud thud not four 
feet back of my chair, knocking leaves from the 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 205 

branches overhead on to our tablecloth. The 
priest's fork clattered to the table, he bowed his 
head and crossed himself three times. A long- 
drawn sigh of relief escaped my lips and I got up 
to examine the object which had so narrowly- 
missed me. 

I found a neat circular hole in the earth about 
three and a half inches in diameter. 

"Be careful!" Colonel Kalpaschnecoff warned, 
as I cautiously reached down. ''If it is a defective 
bomb, the slightest jar may cause it to explode!" 

I reached down until my arm was in above the 
elbow, when I felt a metallic disk which I recog- 
nized to be the rear end of a shrapnel casing. 
After some difficulty I managed to lift it out and 
found that it was an empty casing, one which had 
been fired by our own guns, had discharged its 
pellets at the Boche when its time fuse ignited the 
powder charge, and had then fallen to the earth. 

The dropping of these shrapnel cases is the 
cause of many casualties. They drop from a 
height of five or six thousand feet and naturally 
attain tremendous velocity. I attended a soldier 
who had been struck on the foot by one of them, 
completely amputating that member at the Instep. 
Another poor fellow was hit directly on the head 



2o6 SURGEON GROW 

and killed outright, his skull being crushed like 
an eggshell. 

''The Germans are sending their greeting to 
you on your arrival from America," remarked the 
Colonel, as we resumed our meal, and I kept the 
«mpty shell-casing as a souvenir of my return to 
the Russian army. It weighs about ten pounds 
and serves as a receptacle for flowers. 

*'We will have a demonstration attack in a few 
days," the Colonel enlightened me, when the tea 
was served and we had lighted our cigarettes. 
"The object of the action will be to prevent the 
Germans from sending troops to the south to 
reinforce the hard-pressed Austrians where Brusi- 
loff is driving them steadily back, taking large 
numbers of prisoners. 

"At the same time that we attack, there will 
be a great offensive about a hundred miles south 
of us at Baranovitchi. Our corps will not at- 
tempt to pierce the German line. In fact, if we 
capture their first and second lines we shall occupy 
them only a short time and then return to our 
own lines." 

The next morning I rode out to our main dress- 
ing station, which was located in a peasant's cot- 
tage about one verst (five-eighths of a mile) back 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 207 

of the trenches. The house belonged to a man 
about seventy years of age, and despite the shell- 
ing the place had received, the old fellow wouldn't 
leave. 

He was the only peasant remaining in the lo- 
cality, all the inhabitants of the neighboring vil- 
lage having fled when the Germans approached. 
As he tended to his bees, of which he had about 
twenty hives, he reminded me very much of Tol- 
stoi, whom he strongly resembled. 

We used the large room of the house for our 
dressing station, and we fixed up an old barn to 
serve as an annex where the wounded might be 
placed while waiting for the ambulances to re- 
move them to the division hospital. 

There was not sufficient time to make a bomb- 
proof, so I pitched a little tent under an apple- 
tree in the garden where it was well screened from 
German observers by the foliage. About fifty feet 
from the tent a line of well-constructed reserve- 
trenches cut diagonally across the garden, and they 
could be used as a refuge in case of heavy shell- 
ing. 

I ate my meals in the open on a box placed 
under the apple-tree, as my tent was thickly in- 
fested with flies. By closing the flap of the tent 



2o8 SURGEON GROW 

during meals I was able to pen them In and could 
eat my food In comparative peace. 

The German positions were on a ridge about a 
verst away from my tent and in plain view as I sat 
at my meals. 

Our artillery, which was back of me firing over 
my head, was pouring a steady rain of projectiles 
on the ridge, and fifteen or twenty shells could be 
seen bursting at one time on the skyline. The con- 
stant stream of shells striking the ridge at various 
points along the crest threw up fountains of black 
smoke and dirt to a height of a hundred feet and 
more, looking* like strange trees which developed 
as you watched. 

Lieutenant Muhanoff dropped in for dinner the 
afternoon that I arrived and we were sittlng^ 
watching the shelling while Michael served din- 
ner. 

Several German shells came moaning toward 
our batteries, which were situated in the woods 
back of us about five hundred yards from the 
garden. 

We had finished dinner and were sitting enjoy- 
ing the fine warm sunshine when Michael, who 
was standing nearby, held up his hand and cried^ 
"Listen I'' 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 209 

Whoo! We heard the shell coming and all 
three dived for the shelter of the reserve-trench, 
which was only a few steps from where we sat. 
We had barely jumped in before the shell ex- 
ploded with a frightful crash just back of the 
tent in the middle of the garden. 

We crouched down in the bottom of the trench 
waiting for the next one, which came over pres- 
ently and burst near the house. 

Just as it exploded, Michael, who was sitting 
on the fire-step of the trench, clapped his hand to 
his forehead with a loud cry. I decided that he 
had been struck by a piece of shell and stepped 
over to him. He was holding his hand to his fore- 
head and his face was ghastly. 

No blood appeared between his fingers. 

"Do you think I am done for?'' he whispered, 
as I removed his hands. 

All I could see was a little red spot just above 
the eyebrow, in the center of which was stuck a 
black spine like a small thorn. 

He was terribly frightened and I was just about 
to assure him that whatever it was it would not 
prove fatal, when something hit me in back of the 
neck with such force that my head rocked. 

A terrible burning followed, and immediately 



210 SURGEON GROW 

afterward I received a second blow on the left 
cheek, followed by a similar smarting burn. 

There was a startled cry from the Lieutenant, 
and he started running up the trench, wildly beat- 
ing the air with his hands. 

When a third shell came whistling in and ex- 
ploded, Michael gave vent to a howl and jumped 
up, shouting: "The bees! The bees!" 

The air was now full of an angry humming, and 
as I started off in full flight after Michael, who 
was now following the Lieutenant, I received an- 
other lightning stab on the back of the neck. 

The shells landing among the dozen or more 
hives had by the force of their explosion knocked 
them over, and the little owners, furious at this 
disturbance, had gone forth to give battle. We 
were the innocent victims of their attack. 

A perfect swarm of the angry insects buzzed 
about my head as I ran, fanning the air with both 
hands. The Lieutenant, unable to make sufficient 
headway in the narrow crooked trench, threw dis- 
cretion to the winds, leaped the parapet, and ran 
madly across the field, away from the garden. 
Michael, his head surrounded by a cloud of con- 
voys, followed suit, but not being so agile as the 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 211 

Lieutenant, stumbled and fell rolling down the 
parapet Into the field. 

Another shell came screeching In and hit on the 
edge of the garden, and the air was full of the 
buzzing of a more destructive agent than our tor- 
mentors, the bees. 

Michael, alarmed at the proximity of the shell- 
burst, leaped to his feet and dashed off, fear and 
pain giving added speed to his flight. 

I decided the bees were preferable to the shells, 
and seeing the door of the bomb-proof open I 
ran into the sheltering gloom of the interior, where 
I brushed off two or three bees who were cling- 
ing to my clothes. I stayed In the bomb-proof 
until the Germans had ceased shelling, and then 
went in search of the other victims. 

I had completely lost the vision of one eye from 
an enormous swelling which closed It tight, but I 
succeeded in finding the Lieutenant and Michael. 
They were seated on the grass at the farther end 
of the field and presented a wonderful spectacle 
with their swollen features. 

As the Lieutenant rose to go he told me that 
his company was not going over in the attack 
scheduled for the following night. 

*'I know of an observation point from which we 



212 SURGEON GROW 

can see the beginning of the ^ght^^^ he said, "and 
if you care to, come to my regiment to-morrow 
afternoon and we'll watch it together." 

I promised to do so provided I could get back 
to the dressing station in time to attend the 
wounded when they came in. 

"Very well," he said; "you can leave right after 
the first wave goes over." 

Our artillery kept up a steady systematic fire 
all night and the next day. In the afternoon I 
rode to where the Lieutenant's regiment was bil- 
leted in dug-outs in the forest in reserve. I left 
my horse there and we walked a mile to the posi- 
tions where they ran along on the top of some high 
sand ridges. 

We went through an approach-trench which zig- 
zagged up one of these hills, the highest of the 
series. At the very top was built a strong bomb- 
proof which was used as an observation point. 

Just over the brow of the hill were our first- 
line trenches which faced the Germans on a series 
of lower ridges about three hundred yards away, 
a shallow ravine lying between. 

Far off on the right flank, stretching away for 
miles to the horizon, were the blue waters of Lake 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 213 

, part of which was in German hands 



and part in ours. 

The right flank of our corps rested on the edge 
of the lake ; and across six miles of intervening wa- 
ter I could see, through the periscope in the ob- 
servation point, the yellow lines of the trenches 
begin on its farther shore, which was held by an- 
other corps. 

As it grew dusky and our artillery increased its 
fire, the Germans kept their rockets flying in the 
air in expectation of an attack. By 12:30 a.m., 
when our troops went over the top, the German 
line simply spouted rockets until it looked like a 
fireworks exhibition at Coney Island. There were 
Tvhite ones by the thousand and dozens of red ones 
— the latter being used where our troops were 
pressing the Germans hard and they wanted a 
more intense artillery barrage. 

During early July in this part of Russia the 
nights are never entirely dark, but the field was 
covered by a pall of smoke through which could 
be seen the angry red bursts of shrapnel like light- 
ning through a cloud mass on a summer night. 
By the light of these shrapnel explosions and the 
white, red, and green flares of the enemy's rockets. 



214 SURGEON GROW 

we could see the entire line of attack, which was 
over a front of one kilometer. 

The crackle of the machine-guns and rifles was 
intense at first but gradually quieted down. That 
was a good sign, for it indicated that our men had 
taken the first two lines and had silenced the Ger- 
man gunners. 

I was loath to leave the wonderful sight, but I 
knew the wounded were starting to pour back 
through the communication-trenches and I had 
to hurry back to my dressing station. 

As I hurried through a communication-trench 
I passed dozens of wounded, who were slowly 
wending their way back, many sitting down to rest 
for a few moments to recover from the pain and 
shock of their wounds. 

At our advanced dressing station, which was in 
a strong dug-out under the lea of a sand-hill, I 
stopped a moment to see how the students Metia 
and Nicholi were coming on with the work. 

The dug-out was packed with wounded and doz- 
ens were lying on the ground outside patiently wait- 
ing their turn. The students, whose white gowns 
were splattered with blood, were working like 
mad in the dull light of a couple of candles. 

I hurried on across some low-lying ground 




Seriously wounded soldier being carried in by stretcher bearers during 
the demonstration attack. 




"Streams of wounded soldiers barely able to walk, reeled along like 
drunken men through the semi-darkness, headed for our dressing sta- 
tion." 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 215 

studded with little pine-trees, toward the main 
dressing room in the old peasant's house. On a 
narrow trail were dozens of parties of stretcher- 
bearers, four to a stretcher, stumbling along 
through the semi-darkness bearing their moaning, 
pain-stricken burdens, while other wounded sol- 
diers, barely able to walk, reeled along like drunk- 
en men, headed for our dressing station. 

In the stress of battle we had to make men walk 
who were hideously wounded. I have seen them 
reel in with their jaws shot off, with both arms 
shot through, or with a gaping hole through the 
thigh. Sometimes a terribly wounded man would 
come in leading another who had been blinded in 
both eyes. 

I soon outdistanced these crawling wretches and 
had a free path to the dressing station, where I 
found everything in readiness. The orderlies had 
sterilized my instruments, gauze and bandages 
were at hand, and the ambulances were drawn, 
up in a long line waiting for their passengers. 

Working steadily till ten o'clock the next morn- 
ing, we handled two hundred and eighty wounded 
men that night in the little dressing station. 

As v/e were finishing the bandaging of the last 
soldier, Lieutenant Muhanoff came into the band- 



2i6 SURGEON GROW 

age-strewn room and I asked him if the demon- 
stration attack had been a success. 

"Yes, yes, a great success," he replied. "As 
you know, our men only stayed a few minutes in 
the German trenches after taking the first two 
lines. They didn't intend to. It was not a serious 
attempt to pierce the lines. We lost about three 
thousand men in killed and wounded out of the 
three regiments which attacked." 

"Three thousand men lost in a mere demonstra- 
tion!" I exclaimed. "Wasn't that pretty costly 
work just to keep the Germans from shifting 
troops?" 

"That is war," commented the Lieutenant, 
shrugging his shoulders. "I have seen in your 
America — what do you call it — ah, yes — the prize- 
fight. In these contests I have seen one man pre- 
tend to strike his opponent and yet have no inten- 
tion of doing so. It is what you call a feint, isn't 
it? Now that man may be very tired and ^ho 
movement may cause him to use up some much 
needed energy, yet he must do it to deceive his op- 
ponent. It's general results which count. So it 
is with us — the real blow comes in the south but 
we must make a pretense of attacking here farther 
north in order to deceive the enemy. It costs 



A DEMONSTRATION ATTACK 217 

some men, of course, — In other words. It uses up 
some of our energy — but the general staff have 
counted the cost and they decided that three thou- 
sand men was not too much to pay.'' 

It was quite logical, of course, but none the less 
horrifying. 

We walked out of the dingy little room into the 
warm morning sunshine where the birds were 
singing. The last of the ambulances was rattling 
off over the road in a cloud of dust. The artillery 
on both sides was silent and not a machine-gun or 
rifle could be heard on our sector of the front; 
but far off to the south could be heard a low mut- 
tering rumble. 

"That's the battle of Baranovltchi," said the 
Lieutenant. "You can hear the guns although it is 
hundreds of miles away!" 

I inhaled deep breaths of the sweet-scented air. 
The sunshine acted like a tonic after the long 
night's work, which seemed like the memory of a 
terrible dream. 

We sat down to a cup of coffee under the spread- 
ing apple-tree and we could see the ridge on which 
the German trenches lay. Yesterday it had been 
a spouting mass of sand and smoke, but now It 



2i8 SURGEON GROW 

shimmered yellow, silent and deserted under the 
dancing heat rays. 

The old peasant limped about in his bare feet, 
his loose white rooboshka (shirt) flapping in the 
morning breeze, as he repaired the damage done 
by the German shells to his beehives. 

Another scene of the great drama had finished, 
and except for a few more gaps in our brown-clad 
ranks and a few more crosses in a little cemetery, 
the world went on as before. 



CHAPTER XIX 

WE JOIN BRUSILOFF's BIG DRIVE 

A FTER the demonstration attack, our corps 
was moved back near the railroad and bil- 
leted in little villages which were scattered over 
the surrounding territory. 

The gaps In our ranks were rapidly filled up 
and In a week our corps received orders to be 
ready to entrain in four days. 

Every one knew we were going south some- 
where, but to just what point on the line no one 
could be certain. 

In the evening of the third day we moved our 
entire outfit to the station, camping that night In 
a grove of trees along the track. 

The loading of 50,000 men, a division of artil- 
lery, a regiment of Cossacks, the staff and Its equip- 
ment, to say nothing of the enormous number of 
little transport carts, with their horses, was a dif- 
ficult task. 

The railroad was a single-track affair, with only 
219 



220 SURGEON GROW 

one siding. Nevertheless the trains, each of which 
consisted of thirty-five cars, pulled out with clock- 
like regularity. 

We had an entire train for our ambulance col- 
umn. Our ambulances were placed in flat cars, 
the horses led up planks into the box cars, six in 
each car, while the personnel occupied box cars 
fitted with tiers of rough planks at either end to 
sleep upon. 

Russian troops are always moved in this fash- 
ion, the coaches being reserved for the officers. 
The Colonel, the students and I shared an old 
third-class car with some officers from the staff. 
We placed two field kitchens on a flat car and our 
food was cooked in them while travelling. 

The trains followed each other in rapid suc- 
cession, ours being In about the middle of the long 
line. Progress was slow and breakdowns were 
frequent. 

At one point we burned out an axle bearing on 
one of the box cars. We stopped at a station and 
instead of cutting out this car, side-tracking it and 
substituting a new one, which could have been done 
in about ten minutes, they repaired the damaged 
one on the main track! An old bearded mechanic 
jacked up our car, seated himself on an old stool 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 221 

beside the axle, took out the burned-up bearing 
and, with a gouge, cut a new one out of some soft 
metal and fitted It to the axle. The operation 
took three hours and not only held us up for that 
length of time but also the twelve trains back of 
us. 

After five days we reached Rovno and de- 
trained. The fighting unit of the corps went on by 
rail, as telegrams had been received from the corps 
whose places we were to take urging us to speed 
up as they had suffered such losses from German 
counter-attacks that they would be unable to hold 
out much longer. Because of lack of rail facih- 
ties, the transport and ambulance corps had to go 
to the fighting lines on their own wheels. Rovno 
was ninety miles from the trenches along the River 
Stockhod. 

After the fall of Warsaw, the Austro-German 
forces had advanced within twenty miles of Rovno, 
where, in September, 19 15, the Russians had 
stemmed their advance. Both sides then en- 
trenched and occupied the positions for nine 
months. 

When Brusiloff started his big drive In June, 
19 1 6, the Austrians had been forced back with 
frightful losses until they had been able to check 



222 SURGEON GROW 

the Russian advances at the River Stockhod. The 
Russians had been pounding away at this line, 
trying to break through, for several weeks. If 
they could accomphsh this, Kovel, known as the 
*'key of Warsaw," would be at their mercy. 

Kovel was an Important railway center, twenty 
miles beyond Stockhod River. 

In August the Germans had rushed up many 
new divisions and were putting up a frightful 
defensive fight. 

**Our corps has a difficult task to perform," said 
Colonel Kalpaschnecofif, as we rode along at the 
head of our long column of ambulances. "The 
Stockhod Is a series of sluggish streams running 
through an Immense marsh. We will be sent 
against the Prussian guard corps, which Is defend- 
ing the other bank of the river. It promises to be 
a terrible fight." 

About eighteen miles from Rovno we came to 
the first of the old lines, which the Austrlans had 
held since the fall of 19 15 and had been forced 
out of early In August, just a few weeks before we 
arrived. 

Where our road crossed the Russian trench line, 
we could see the signs of the Intense fighting which 
had occurred there a short time before. The 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 223 

trenches were in a marshy field facing the Austri- 
an lines, which ran along the border of a swampy 
forest. 

The Russian trenches were of the built-up type, 
the ground being too marshy for deep digging. 
Sods of earth formed a high parapet, which had 
been badly battered by Austrian shell fire. 

We crossed what had been No Man's Land and 
arrived at the abandoned Austrian trenches. They 
were beautifully constructed of great timbers, con- 
crete and earth. In some places even steel rails 
had been cemented into place as protection against 
shell fire. 

We dismounted to make a careful Inspection of 
their construction. Near the road stood a large; 
structure, with thick walls of logs and dirt. Ap- 
parently it had been an officer's bomb-proof. 

As we tied our horses to a tree, an old peas- 
ant, leading a child by the hand, emerged from the 
door of the bomb-proof and approached us. Never 
have I seen a more forlorn spectacle than these 
two presented. The old man was In his bare feet, 
he was without a hat, his long gray hair falHng 
In stringy unkempt masses over his shoulders, his 
frame was emaciated and bent, and his face had 
not known water for a long time. His clothes, 



224 SURGEON GROW 

mere rags, hung from his cadaverous frame like 
those of a scare-crow. 

The child, too, presented a weird picture. It 
was a little boy about four years old, clad in a 
queer assortment of garments. On his head was 
a Russian soldier's cap, many sizes too large, fall- 
ing down over his ears and half concealing his 
pinched, wan features. He wore an Austrian 
tunic, cast off by some soldier. It had once been 
gray but was now faded to an uncertain color. It 
had been made for a large man and descended well 
below the little fellow's knee, almost hiding the 
ragged homespun breeches he wore, while the 
sleeves dangled and flapped while he walked. 

This strange pair came up to us, the old man 
bowing and peering out from under his shaggy, 
unkempt hair with the dull rheumy eyes of age. 

*Tlease, Excellencies," he said as he ap- 
proached, "can you spare us a little bread? We 
have nothing to eat and are starving!" 

The Colonel ordered one of the orderlies to 
bring some food. The fires in our field kitchens, 
which cook while on the march, were going, and 
the orderly came back with some steaming boiled 
beef, hot cassia, and black bread. He offered it to 
the old man and child. The youngster seized a 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 225 

piece of meat In his claw-like hands and pro- 
ceeded to bolt it Hke a wild animal. The old man 
fell on his with equally ravenous energy. 

*'Have you seen my mama?" asked the little 
fellow, his eyes full of tears, after he had eaten 
all that he could. *'She went away a long time 
ago and never came back!" 

"Hush, dear!" the old man crooned. "Mama 
will come back to her baby In a few days." And 
then, turning to us, he added: "He asks that of 
all the soldiers who march by on the road. What 
can I do, Excellencies? We have no food, no 
home — only the mushrooms which I gather in the 
forest and what bread we can beg from the sol- 
diers as they pass." 

"Tell us what has happened," replied the 
Colonel. "Why do you live here in that bomb- 
proof?" 

"It is a long story. Excellency." 

"Never mind, tell us. We must stop here for 
lunch, and the horses must be fed and watered." 

The old man seated himself at our feet and 
without further urging told us his story. 

"My name is Gregory Paulovitch Arapoff. I 
lived in the village which you will pass if you fol- 
low that road. It is eight miles back of these 



226 SURGEON GROW 

trenches. I lived with my daughter, who is mar- 
ried and who is the mother of this little boy. She 
is twenty-four years old. Her husband is thirty- 
eight. He had not been called to the colors when 
the Austrians came to our village last fall. 

"We did not leave as some of the people did, 
for we were very poor and had only our cabin 
and what we could raise on a little patch of ground. 
Many Austrian soldiers and officers lived in our 
village from last summer up until a few weeks 
ago. We were ordered by the officers to keep 
three soldiers in the house. From time to time 
new soldiers came to live with us. We also had 
to give part of our potatoes and bread, milk from 
the cow, many chickens, and some of our pigs to 
the Austrians, but they always paid for them. 
They were not unkind to us. Excellency, but we 
never grew to like them." 

The old man's arm stole around the little child, 
who had fallen asleep on the ground beside him. 
He pressed the tiny form to his sunken breast. 

"No, they were not unkind to us at first," he 
continued. *^One day early this summer the sound 
of the cannons increased in volume. Day and 
night we could hear the steady roar. Many 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 227 

wounded Austrians were brought to the hospital 
in the village. 

**The road was filled with wagons, loaded with 
shells, and hundreds of soldiers. We were not 
allowed to leave the village during this time. 

"One afternoon four soldiers and an under-offi- 
cer came to the door of our cabin and asked my 
daughter and her husband to come to the house 
of the officer who had charge of the troops in 
the village. They called him the commandant. 
We thought they wished to buy more potatoes or 
bread. My daughter and her husband left me 
to take care of the little boy. They expected to 
be gone only a few minutes, as It was not far to 
the house of the commandant, and they did not 
even kiss the boy good-bye. He was playing on 
the floor of the isba — cabin — when they left. 

*'I sat by the stove waiting for them to return. 
Time passed and I was just thinking they had 
been gone a long time when the door flew open 
and In rushed a neighbor. He was a man nearly 
as old as myself. Excellency. His name was 
Michael. He lived but two doors away with his 
only daughter Olga. His wife was dead many 
years. I scarcely knew him as he rushed In. He 



228 SURGEON GROW 

was wild, his clothes were torn, and blood ran 
down his face from a cut over his eye. 

"'Gregory! Gregory!' he screamed, 'they 
have taken my little daughter, my pretty one, my 
Olechka !' 

"Froth drooled from his mouth and ran down 
his beard, his eyes blazed, and he beat his breast 
with his clenched fists. 

"'Man! Man!' I said, rising from my chair, 
'be quiet and tell me what has happened!' 

"He sat down on a bench and buried his face 
in his hands, rocking to and fro. 

" 'The Russians are coming and the Austrians 
are leaving the village. They are taking with 
them all the young people and are leaving the old, 
such as you and I, who would be only a burden 
to them. They came to my house and asked for 
my Olga' — she was a pretty girl, Excellency, not 
quite seventeen — 'I asked them what they wanted 
of her, but they did not answer and tried to push 
by me at the door, but I barred the way. There 
were four soldiers and an officer in the party. The 
officer struck me with his riding crop, felling me to 
the floor. I tried to rise but a soldier jumped on 
me and held me down. The others rushed into 
place and seized my daughter and dragged her 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 229 

shrieking from the house. Then they tied my 
hands and feet and left me lying there. I worked 
my hands free and, unloosing my fetters, ran here, 
thinking you would know where they took my 
daughter. Hark, what is that?' 

*'Then, Excellency, I heard a terrible sound — 
the shrieks of women and the wailing of little 
children. 'Come !' I cried to Michael, and we ran 
from the house, picking up my grandson as we 
rushed to the street. 

**I knew now why they had sent for my daughter 
and her husband, and I ran down the village street 
toward the house where they had asked her to 
come. 

"A terrible sight met my eyes. Austrian soldiers 
were going about setting fire to the houses, many 
of which were already burning fiercely. Along 
the roadside, in front of her house, lay the body 
of old Marsha, who lived only four doors from 
me. Blood flowed from her chest. I stopped, but 
she did not move or breathe so I ran on. I ran 
very fast, Excellency — even carrying this child, 
I outdistanced Michael, who has always had 
something wrong with his heart. 

"At the end of the village street, several com- 
panies of Austrlans were drawn up In a hollow 



230 SURGEON GROW 

square, with the bayonets fixed on their guns. In- 
side the square were all the young people of the 
village. Barring my way was a line of soldiers 
drawn up across the road. They also had their 
bayonets fixed. The girls and young women were 
weeping. In front of the line of soldiers were 
several of the old people of the village. Some 
were down on their knees, begging that their dear 
ones be allowed to remain. One of the old men 
tried to force his way through the lines, but he 
was flung back by the Austrians. 

*'I rushed up to an officer who was standing 
there and asked to be allowed to go with my 
daughter. He turned on his heel and walked 
away. Then I heard a loud shriek and saw my 
daughter throw herself on one of the soldiers and 
try to break through the line of guards. The sol- 
dier struck her full in the face, knocking her down, 
and threatened her with his bayonet as she lay 
in the dust of the road. I saw my son-in-law. His 
hat was gone. His head was bowed and his hands 
were tied behind his back. His clothing was torn. 
He, too, had evidently struggled with the Austri- 
ans. 

"An order was shouted and they started off 
down the road. One of the soldiers picked my 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 231 

daughter up from the ground, half dragging her 
along as they went. 

"Then Michael, whom I had outdistanced, ran 
up. His face was purple and his breath coming 
in gasps. He saw his daughter weeping Inside 
that square of soldiers. With a wild cry he picked 
up a club which was lying on the ground and 
dashed at the line of soldiers who barred his 
way. Straight at one of the soldiers he went and 
struck a savage blow with the club. The Austrian 
was a huge fellow and easily parried the blow 
with his rifle. 

*'Then I saw the soldier give a quick lunge and 
Michael threw up his hands, dropping the club 
and clutching his breast. I saw several Inches of 
steel bayonet sticking out from between his shoul- 
der-blades and a red streak of blood staining his 
white rooboshka (shirt). He fell to the ground, 
carrying the rifle with him. It stuck upright from 
his body. The Austrian put his big hob-nailed boot 
upon Michael's chest, gave a heave, and jerked 
the bayonet out. Michael rolled over several 
times and coughed, spitting out mouthfuls of 
blood. Finally he lay quiet. 

'*By this time the young folks and their guards 



232 SURGEON GROW 

were far off down the road. I, a feeble old man, 
could do nothing. 

"Austrian troops came pouring through the vil- 
lage, which was now burning fiercely. The roads 
were choked with columns of artillery and ambu- 
lances, all retreating as fast as possible, their driv- 
ers yelling and swearing. Automobiles carrying 
officers dashed madly back and forth. Panic was 
in the air. 

**A11 the time I tightly held my little grandson 
in my arms. He was wild with fright, screaming 
and crying and trying to escape from my grasp to 
follow his mother down the road. 

^'Finally I could no longer see our people. They 
were hidden by clouds of dust, which rose from 
the road. Only a few of the old folks remained. 
They stood stupidly about, not knowing what to 
do next. 

"I walked back toward my house, but it was 
in flames. The heat was terrific and I circled the 
village by way of the fields. I could hear the sound 
of rifles and machine-guns. Some wounded Austri- 
an soldiers came staggering down the road, mak- 
ing for the rear as fast as they could go. 

*'The fighting was getting closer and closer. 
Russian shells started to whistle and burst over 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 233 

the road, and I made off across the fields for the 
forest. I found a large tree which had fallen 
down, the limbs holding the trunk slightly off the 
ground. There was just room enough to hide a 
man's body. It was just growing dusk, so I sat 
down In the bushes beside the log. 

*'Some Austrian soldiers came running through 
the woods, rifles and machine-guns crashed all 
about, and the noise was terrible. I crawled un- 
der the log and hid, covering the little child with 
my body, while bullets whistled and cracked over 
my head and more Austrians ran by, firing their 
rifles as they went. 

"Presently I heard Russian words spoken near 
me, but the firing continued as I lay still. 

"I saw several soldiers creeping forward cau- 
tiously — they were Russian soldiers. The firing 
gradually got farther away, and when more of 
our soldiers came up I crawled out from under the 
log and called to them. They came over and 
talked with me, and an officer who was with them 
detailed a soldier to carry the child, for I was 
exhausted from the exertion and the excitement. 

"He led the way through the forest to this very 
road, which was full of Russian artillery moving 



234 SURGEON GROW 

up in the direction of our village, and stretcher-, 
bearers carrying the wounded back. ! 

"We went down the road almost to where we 
are now seated and came to a dressing station. 
The doctor in charge was very kind and gave us 
some food and a place to sleep in his tent, but the 
next morning he received orders to move up closer 
to the fighting line, and as he could not take us 
with him, we had to remain here. 

"Since then, we have lived in these old Austri- 
an trenches, sleeping at night in that bomb-proof. 
Sometimes soldiers go by on the road and they 
always give us food. What we will do when the 
winter comes on I do not know. Occasionally I 
go back to where the village stood. Nothing re- 
mains there but ruins, but I go because I think 
possibly my daughter or her husband may escape 
and get back to the village looking for us, but 
nobody is ever there. Sometimes I meet some of 
my old neighbors who are living in the forest be- 
yond the village. Do you think my daughter will 
escape from the Austrians, Excellency?" 

The old man sat holding the sleeping child, sup- 
porting it with his arm, while his claw-like fingers 
stroked its golden hair. 

"Can't we send him back to Rovno with a note 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 235 

to the Red Cross asking them to look out for 
him?" I Inquired of the Colonel. 

"Yes; I think that Is the best thing to do," he 
replied. 

Our column had stopped, the horses were being 
fed and watered and the orderlies were having 
their dinner. The Colonel had our much battered 
victoria brought up and food was placed under 
the seat for the old man, the child and the driver. 
We gave him enough money to last him for sev- 
eral months and a note to the head of the Red 
Cross In Rovno. 

At first he did not wish to go, hoping that his 
daughter might escape and return to the village, 
but we assured him that this was impossible and 
promised to leave word with any villagers that 
we might meet where he could be found, and they 
drove off. 

''I am surprised at such atrocities from the 
Austrlans," said the Colonel, as we rode off. "They 
have always been more humane than the Ger- 
mans. However, they receive their orders from 
the German General Staff and are completely un- 
der the domination of Berlin — so we may expect 
anything from them." 

"What do you think will become of the girls 



236 SURGEON GROW 

those Austrians carried off?" I asked, referring 
to the mother of the little boy and Michael's 
daughter. 

"What happened to the women who were seized 
by the Huns in the old days when they fought with 
clubs and spears?" the Colonel rejoined. 

"You think, then, the very worst that can hap- 
pen to a woman?" I queried, horrified by the 
thought. 

"Without any question!" said the Colonel; and 
we rode on in silence, each busy with his own 
thoughts. 

An hour later we came to the little village in 
which the old peasant Gregory and his daughter 
and little grandson had Hved, happy and content 
with their little existence. It was now only a 
charred mass of ruins, scarcely one log resting 
upon another. 

Beyond the village we passed fields of rye and 
wheat, the over-ripe grain falling to the ground 
from the dry heads. A cloud of sparrows and 
wild pigeons rose from its yellow surface as we 
rode by. They were the only harvesters for that 
crop. 

Near the fields we met several old men and 
women seated along the roadside who asked us 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 237 

for food. They were dirty and unkempt, in all 
variety of ragged garments, and were the most 
pitiful objects one could Imagine. 

We questioned them and they Informed us they 
were from the same village as Gregory. We told 
them where he and the little boy could be found. 
They, too, were living In the forest on what they 
could pick up — more like wild animals than human 
beings. We left them sufficient food for several 
days and continued on our journey. 

For two days we rode through a belt of dev- 
astated territory, with the sound of drum-fire in 
our ears day and night coming from far off In the 
west where lay the River Stockhod. 

The terrible marks of the gigantic war machine 
which had rolled over the beautiful countryside 
were indelibly impressed on everything. In one 
of the swamps the Colonel and I discovered an en- 
tire battery of six-Inch howitzers, a number of 
caissons, and a great quantity of shells for the 
guns. Nobody else had found them — they were 
so carefully screened In the heart of the swamp. 
They had been brought there over corduroy roads 
to a high spot where the ground was dry and there 
they had been placed. The Austrlans had been 
too hard-pressed to get them out, and apparently 



238 SURGEON GROW 

had neglected to blow up the shells or even to 
destroy the breech blocks of the guns. There 
they were, their squat gray muzzles pointed to- 
ward the northeast — toward the Russian trenches 
abandoned a month ago. 

It seemed scarcely credible that they should 
have remained there so long without discovery, 
and yet we only stumbled upon them while explor- 
ing the roads and having become lost from our 
columns. We took a short-cut to catch up and 
happened to cross this swamp, using the road 
which nobody had traversed since the day the 
Austrians had fled. 

All along the roadside were isolated wooden 
crosses, marking the fresh graves of both Austri- 
an and Russian dead. Where large engagements 
had been fought, there were great cemeteries with 
hundreds of these crosses, the Russians placing 
their dead in the cemeteries which the Austrians 
had established before being driven out. 

I saw by my field map that we should be near 
the town of Kolky, on the River Styr. Its name 
was printed in large letters and I knew that it 
must be a place of importance. The country was 
flat, the road stretched ahead as straight as a 
string, and I looked for the onion-shaped church- 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 239 

steeple and the straw-thatched houses which mark 
every town In Russia and which we ought to have 
been able to see plainly, as we were but two miles 
away, according to the map. Not a sign of them 
could we see. 

We rode forward a couple of miles and then, 
alongside the road, I saw acres and acres of tum- 
bled stone and brick and burned timbers scattered 
about over the ground, as though some giant hand 
had flung them there. 

**That's Kolky!" declared the Colonel. 

"Kolky!" I repeated in astonishment. "Why, 
I thought Kolky was quite a town!'* 

"It was. It had a population of seven thou- 
sand. But it changed hands ten times and this is 
all that's left!" 

All traces of any system of streets was entirely 
effaced, the road we followed having been cleared 
by the troops which preceded us through the heaps 
of piled-up rubbish. Not a sign of a human being 
was visible. 

It was growing dark and we halted our horses 
in the midst of this scene of desolation. Several 
cadaverous-looking cats prowled around a heaped- 
up pile of masonry beside the roadside. A black 
dog, his ribs showing on his gaunt side, came up 



240 SURGEON GROW 

and sniffed at us with a hungry air. He, too, 
looked forlorn and desolate as he circled about 
trying to determine If we were friend or foe. I 
tossed him the remains of a lunch which I had in 
my saddle-bag and he devoured it ravenously. 

A strong raw wind had sprung up, bringing 
with it a cold drizzle, and I wrapped my rubber 
poncho tightly around me, for the rain and wind 
chilled me to the bone. 

We spurred up our horses and rode ahead to 
find a place to spend the night. If we could find 
a place dry enough for ourselves and our orderlies 
to spend the night we would save the time and 
trouble required to put up a tent in the darkness. 

At the other end of the town, screened by some 
shell-torn trees, we found a couple of stone houses, 
badly battered but still retaining enough of their 
walls and roofs to accommodate our party. We 
sent word back to the column to move up, and 
when they arrived the horses were unhitched and 
tied to the ambulances and given their supper. 

We spent a miserable night in the dilapidated 
house. Some time in the night I was awakened 
by cold water soaking through my blankets, and 
I felt some heavy weight on my legs, as though 
some one were sitting on them. I reached for my 



WE JOIN BRUSILOFFS BIG DRIVE 241 

flashlight and flashed It in the direction of the 
weight, disclosing the wretched dog that I had fed 
that afternoon. He was soaking wet and looked 
even more pathetic than before. I made him a 
bed in the corner and he curled himself up with 
the utmost satisfaction. 

The next morning we crossed the River Styr 
on a bridge which the Russians had hastily con- 
structed in their pursuit of the Austrians and 
which replaced the one which the retreating Aus- 
trians had destroyed. The dog followed at the 
heels of my horse, having apparently adopted me 
as his master, and he remained with me for sev- 
eral weeks, when he disappeared — being probably 
appropriated by some soldiers as a regiment 
mascot. 

After crossing the river, we travelled the entire 
day over a military road built by the Austrians 
straight through the heart of an enormous swamp. 
The Colonel said they had used Russian prisoners 
to construct this marvellous piece of work. Huge 
pilings had been driven into the marshy ground, 
projecting about eight feet above the surface of 
the mud. On these pilings rested the bed of the 
road made of hand hewn square timber. It was 
sixty feet wide, as level as a floor, and ran straight 



242 SURGEON GROW 

as an arrow for forty miles ! The Austrians had 
attempted to burn it in various places as they 
hastily retreated, but the timber was green and 
not very inflammable and little damage had been 
done. At other points large sections had been 
blown up by explosives, but these had been re- 
paired by the pursuing Russians. 

The efficiency of the Austrians revealed by this 
gigantic piece of work served to increase our re- 
spect for the enemy we were shortly to meet, and 
the sound of the big guns thundering along the 
line of the Stockhod River far off in the west told 
us that the conflict was raging fiercely. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 

A S we approached the Stockhod, the sound of 
the cannonade grew louder and we began to 
meet regiments of Siberians hurriedly marching 
toward the fighting line. We received word to 
speed up our troops, as we were needed to relieve 
a division which had suffered heavy losses. 

We according left the heavy luggage transport 
wagons in a forest about five miles back of the 
positions and pushed on with all speed, taking only 
the ambulances and a wagon carrying surgical 
material. 

When we reached the high ground three miles 
back from the river we could plainly trace out the 
fighting line for many miles north and south by 
the Great German observation balloons hanging 
suspended in the air back of their lines. From 
one hill I counted eight of them. The Russians 
called them "sausages." 

Shrapnel could be seen bursting over the trench 
243 



244 SURGEON GROW 

lines as far as the eye could see up and down the 
river. Our road was fortunately well screened 
by forest and we were able to bring our ambu- 
lances up to within half a mile of the trenches. 

We established our main dressing station in the 
woods alongside the road which ran down to the 
trenches. From this point on, the road was ex- 
posed to observation, as only stunted trees grew 
along the sides. 

The dressing station was hastily constructed 
from a piece of canvas stretched over a frame- 
work of poles. Sods were piled up around the 
four sides as a protection against H E shells and 
rifle bullets. There was no time to construct a 
dug-out. The entire thing we covered with boughs 
to hide it from aeroplanes, and we placed the Red 
Cross flag carefully beneath a small pine-tree 
where it was visible only to the wounded soldiers 
as they passed by on the road. 

As it grew dark I took some orderlies and two 
students into the trenches and established an ad- 
vance dressing station in a support-trench about 
one hundred yards back of the fire-trench In a 
large dug-out which we found there. 

The first-line trenches were In marshy ground 
and were very shallow affairs. They afforded lit- 




A dressing station durinji the battle of Stockhod. Note the crude struc- 
ture and camouflage of branches hastily flung on. It was the habit of 
Germans to fire on the Russian Red Cross stations, so that great precau- 
tions had to be taken. 




Type of two-wheeled springless cart that served as ambulance on the 

Russian front. Often the wounded travelled from 30 to 40 miles over 

frightful roads in these carts, owing to the great distances in Russia and 

the scarcity of railroads. 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 245" 

tie protection from the heavy shell fire that the 
Austro-Germans were pouring In on them. Our 
Siberians had just taken them over in the after- 
noon. 

Looking out over No Man's Land, I wondered 
how It would be possible to make a successful at- 
tack. It was a great quaking marsh grown up with 
reeds and cattails. The Stockhod River flowed 
through It, dividing at this point into three branch- 
es, each about thirty yards wide. The German 
trenches were about four hundred yards away on 
top of some sand-hills which sloped up from the 
marsh. Down the sides of these hills could be 
seen the gray haze of belts of barbed wire. There 
were two of these hedges, each about forty feet 
deep, with a bare strip thirty feet wide separat- 
ing them. 

A road ran across the swamp, crossing the 
three branches of the river by small wooden 
bridges, now destroyed by the Austro-Germans as 
they retreated. This road had been built up with 
dirt about two feet above the surface of the 
swamp. Nothing could pass over it now, for It 
was under the direct fire from their machine-guns 
and artillery and was blocked at the further end 
by great barriers of barbed wire. 



246 SURGEON GROW 

Our artillery, from the cover of the forest in 
the rear, was pounding the German barbed wire 
and first-line trenches in preparation for an at- 
tack by the infantry. The Germans were retaliat- 
ing with a brisk cannonade on our first-line and 
communication-trenches and on the roads leading 
up to them. We were beginning to have a few 
casualties from this heavy fire, so that there was 
work for us as soon as we got our dressing sta- 
tion set up. 

I found my friend Muhanoff with his company 
in the fire-line. He had just received his cap- 
taincy a few days before. 

"You are a kind, dear friend,'* he declared 
when I congratulated him on his promotion; *'but, 
do you know, I feel sure that I shall be a captain 
for only a few days. For some weeks I have 
had a premonition of Impending death and I feel 
positive that it will come in the next few days." 

I tried to reassure him, but I don't think I 
made much Impression. 

*'This is going to be a difficult place to get 
across," he continued. "Just look at that marsh. 
When you walk out on It, they say. It quakes like 
so much gelatin and you sink In above your knees 
at each step. 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 247 

*'The Germans have certainly selected a beau- 
tiful line of defense. They command every inch 
of it from their position on the sand-hills. 

*'Did you hear about the artillery observers 
who went out on the marsh between the lines?" 
he asked. 

*'No;' I replied; "what's the story?" 

"Well, it shows what kind of ground we'll have 
to go over when we attack — which, judging from 
the sound of our artillery, will be sometime to- 
morrow morning, about the time when it becomes 
gray. It happened this morning. Just at dawn 
an officer observer and four telephone men crawled 
out on the marsh to establish an advanced obser- 
vation point between the first two branches of the 
river. The telephone men carried with them the 
reel holding the wire, which they unwound as they 
advanced, letting it lay on the ground in back of 
them as is the usual method. They crawled out 
under a cover of grass and reeds and reached the 
spot where they were to locate the observation 
point. They hooked up their telephone and as it 
became light called up the battery saying that 
everything was prepared to spot the shell-breaks 
and correct the range when the battery began to 
fire. They were lying close together, concealed in 



248 SURGEON GROW 

the reeds. The battery fired several shots but no 
word came back from the observer and his crew. 
The battery commander called repeatedly to his 
observer, but the line was dead. He concluded 
that German shell had hit the wire and broken 
It, as sometimes occurs, or that the connections had 
become separated In some other way. He sent a 
lineman out from the battery to follow the wire, 
find the break and mend It. The man found 
everything intact through the forest where the 
wire w^as strung on the branches of trees and 
he continued on to the trench lines and then 
crawled out on to the marsh and through the reeds, 
and still he could find no break. He kept on, how- 
ever, going carefully over the quaking bog on his' 
hands and knees. Finally he came to the first 
branch of the river. The wire stretched out be- 
fore him, clearing the river by being stretched 
from the reed which held it up. He got into the 
stream, sheltered from the sight of the Germans 
by the banks, and waded across. The wire ran 
straight to the center of a tangled growth of vege- 
tation on that little island. The soft mud and 
rotting stuff shook beneath his weight so that 
he was fearful of sinking through. He crawled 
carefully on and was astonished to find the wire 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 249 

running right down into the mud in the center of 
a funnel-shaped depression. He pulled on the 
wire and felt something heavy on the end. He 
carefully hauled it up, hand over hand, getting in 
six or eight feet, and then through the oozy mud 
appeared the receiver and transmitter which, as 
you know, in the field telephone is in one piece. 
Not a sign could he find of the officer or the four 
men except the cap of one lying on the edge of 
the funnel-shaped depression. He cleaned the re- 
ceiver of mud and water and called up the battery 
and reported the obvious solution of the mystery. 
The group of five men had been too heavy for 
the surface of the bog to hold. The tangled weeds 
with their roots form a sort of surface covering 
the liquid mass beneath, but there is a limit to its 
capacity, and down the five men had gone into 
that sticking, bottomless ooze, where they were 
drowned or suffocated in a few moments — and 
that, my boy, is the terrain over which we must 
attack to-morrow morning.*' 

*'Look at those crows out there on the marsh !" 
I exclaimed, pointing to a flock of the great black 
birds as they rose heavily out of the reeds and 
circled about over the surface of the swamp, finally 



250 SURGEON GROW 

settling down again in the same spot in which they 
had risen. 

"Something dead out there,'* commented the 
Captain. ''That's why they stay despite the sound 
of the artillery. They don't seem to mind the noise 
as long as there is something to eat. Imagine hav- 
ing them pick at your dead carcass! Ugh!" and 
he shuddered as he contemplated the disgusting 
scene. 

Some time later I recalled his horror at these 
vile birds, and the recollection steeled me to do 
something which I scarcely believe I should other- 
wise have attempted. 

*T must be getting back to the dressing station 
and see that everything is In order," I said, rising 
from the fire-step where I had been sitting. "Come 
and see me to-morrow and tell me how the attack 
came off." 

He promised to come but, as we shook hands, 
he added: "If I get back from the attack." 

I reached the main dressing station on the edge 
of the woods without any adventure, although the 
Germans were pounding our positions pretty se- 
verely. A few wounded were coming in. They 
had been wounded by the shells. There was 
enough work to keep me up all night. Our artil- 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 251 

lery was going full blast and the Germans dropped 
a few shells unpleasantly near us during the night 
but we had no casualties in our personnel. 

Just as dawn was beginning to break I heard 
the tell-tale sound of machine-guns and rifles, and 
going out onto the road could see the rockets 
shooting up which heralded the attack as the Cap- 
tain had predicted. 

A village back of the German lines was burn- 
ing, set on fire by our shells, casting a lurid red 
glare on the clouded sky. 

In a short time the lighter form of wounds — 
hand and arm cases — came pouring down the 
road, making for the dressing station, and we were 
all soon hard at work. After about half an hour 
the rifle and machine-gun fire slackened and we 
knew the attack was over. 

The attack was unsuccessful. The German 
barbed wire had not been blown up sufliciently to 
make large gaps for our troops to get through 
and the Germans had an enormous number of 
machine-guns on the sand-hills which had not been 
put out of action. After suffering heavy losses 
on the marshy ground, our attack had broken 
down after almost reaching the German first-line, 
and what soldiers were left were forced to come 



252 SI UGKON GROW 

back. All the \YOunJcd were soaking wet from 
fording the river, and all complained of tlie dif- 
ficulty oi ad\ancing rapidly tiirouL:;h the nuid. 

One fellow, a tine strappin^r lad oi about twenty- 
six, wounded by a bullet throui^h the shoulder, 
wept bitterly while 1 was dressinix his wound. I 
thought it was from the pain and told him that 
it would stop hurting in a few minutes. 

"It is not the pain o{ the wound, F.xcellency,'* 
he sobbed. "I'm used to that. This is the third 
time I've been wounded. But now I've got to go 
to the base hospital for heaven knows how^ long, 
and so far I have never even seen a German, much 
less get my bayonet into one!" 

The Russian soldier can stand more pain with- 
out a murmur that I had believed it possible for 
the human organism to bear. They were the most 
patient, enduring fellows, and as line soldiers as 
I think the world has ever seen. I speak of the 
old days — when we had good morale and disci- 
pline in the Russian army. These men simply 
could not be downed. They would sit in the 
trenches and be blown to pieces — regiment after 
regiment — when they did not have shells to reply 
to the Germans and when they could see nothing 
to shoot at. 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 253 

There Is no greater test of the bravery of 
troops than holding fast to a position when they 
are smothered in artillery fire from long range 
guns and have nothing with which to hit hack at 
the enemy. Yet these Russians did it time and 
time again in the early days of the war — when the 
very trenches in which they sat were entirely ob- 
literated by shell fire and whole regiments were 
annihilated without firing a single shot. 

But to get back to our story. I worked on 
through the morning until nearly mid-day, and was 
wondering what had befallen my friend Captain 
Muhanoff when a soldier approached the dressing- 
station and addressing me said: **I am a soldier 
in Captain Muhanoff's company. He was killed 
this morning In an attack and Lieutenant Sap- 
aroff of his company sent me to tell you." 

"Muhanoff dead!" I exclaimed, stunned by the 
news. "No, It cannot be I" 

"Yes, Excellency, It Is so. We're all heart- 
broken. We loved him. He was like a father to 
us. After the attack this morning all that was 
left of our company, which had numbered two 
hundred, was sixty. I saw the Captain fall. We 
had lost heavily going across that awful marsh. 
He was ahead of us as always in an attack. We 



254 SURGEON GROW 

followed, dropping by the dozens from the ter- 
rible machine-gun fire. We couldn^t go faster than 
a walk, for at each step we sank in above the 
knees in mud and water. It was just getting day- 
light and the Captain had reached the first line 
of German barbed wire. He was going along the 
edge, stooping low and looking for an opening. 
He went only a few steps when he seemed to find 
a place where he could get through, for he turned 
and beckoned for us to come on, and then started 
through the opening. I saw him throw up his 
hands and fall backward and to the side into the 
barbed wire. His coat caught in some wire which 
had not been broken and his body fell backward, 
bending over the wire, the arms hanging down. 
He was quite dead when I rushed up. I was about 
to try to get him down and carry him back when 
I heard the whistle of the Lieutenant, who was 
now In command, sound the retreat. The few who 
were left of our company turned and went back 
through the marsh as fast as they could go, and 
I knew it was certain death to remain, so I came 
back, leaving the Captain hanging on the wire! 
When I got back to the trenches I looked back 
over the marsh and I could see him still hanging 
there, held up by the wire. He can be seen quite 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 255 

plainly, and if you will come to the trenches with 
me I will show him to you." 

We had about completed our work and no more 
wounded were coming in, so I accompanied the 
soldier to the first-line trench. He put his rifle 
through a loophole, sighting it carefully across, 
the marsh toward the German lines. 

"Look now, Excellency," he said; "the front 
sight is pointing directly to the body of the Captain 
if you line It up with the rear sight." ' 

I could plainly see a gray-brown object hanging 
from the front of the first wire hedge, and through 
my binoculars I studied carefully the ground sur- 
rounding the body, fixing In my mind its relation 
to various landmarks. There was something ter- 
rible for me In the fact that my friend's body 
hung out there on that wire and would continue to 
hang there until It became a horrid putrefying ob- 
ject on the landscape unless something were done. 

As I stood occupied with these distressing 
thoughts, the soldier at my side kept staring out 
through the loophole at the body of his late cap- 
tain, fascinated, I suppose, by the horror of the 
thing. All of a sudden he fired, and before I 
could say a word he let go four more shots in rapid 
succession. 



256 SURGEON GROW 

**My God. man I" I cxchiimcd. "Stop! Have 
you gone mad?'' 

He was hring point-blank at the Captain's 
body! 

"The crows, Ejccellency. tlie crows!" he ex- 
claimed, continuing to fire as fast as he could 
work the bolt action of his rifle. 

A sickening sight met my eyes as I looked 
through my binoculars. There were two crows 
in the air, hovering around the head of the Cap- 
tain's corpse, and a third sat on his shoulder. Its 
head was moving with short vicious stabs in a 
most signilicant manner. 

The soldier beside me w.is cramming a fresh 
clip of cartridges into his rifle and I could hear 
him sobbing as he worked. On my left stood an- 
other soldier, gazing stolidly out over Xo Man's 
Land through the ne>ct loophole. He was paying 
no attention to us but watching for a glimpse of a 
German or an Austrian In the trenches beyond. I 
snatched his rifle from his hands and before he 
realized what had happened was rapidly tiring out 
of my loophole, aiming directly for a black spot 
against the brown background. The soldier at 
my right was also tiring slowly and dehberately. 

Thank God! That hideous black bird sudden- 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 257 

ly took wing — startled by the Impact of a bullet 
on the barbed wire or some nearby object, and 
sailed off. We both stopped firing and heaved a 
sigh of relief, and I handed the empty rifle back 
to the astonished soldier. 

**\VII1 you stand watch here until to-night and 
shoot at them If they come back, providing I get 
the permission of your company comniander?" 
I asked the soldier, 

"Yes, surely," he eagerly replied. 

**To-night I shall cross that marsh and bring 
his body back if it is the last thing I ever do I'' 

"And I shall accompany you, Excellency. With- 
out my help you could never find the body, much 
less carry It bacL" 

"Very well; you remain here and FIl join you 
at nine o'clock this evening when it is beginning 
to grow dark- It will be clear and I think we'll 
be able to locate It by that big pine-tree and the 
bushes on this side." 

I obtained the necessary permission for the sol- 
dier to remain on watch and also told the com- 
mander of the regiment which held the line at that 
point of my plan to rescue the Captain's corpse. 
He consented but warned me of the danger of the 
undertaking. 




TiTi- sr, 



sfii; 








XT !iaj "¥g 3nis: :z. ^ i^m tt 




:nK 



9^Ktf: 



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t «*i' »T^ TAi^ ' '. 11^ ^wmzr 



lor jzi 




26o SURGEON GROW 

they would probably be intent on their work I did 
not fear detection and crept cautiously forward. 

When I reached the bushes which I had spotted 
during the afternoon, I could see the stakes of the 
German entanglements, and directly in front of 
me and not forty feet away was a dark object 
hanging from the first strands of the barricade. 

The pounding continued on the right and oc- 
casionally I could hear the guttural sound of voices 
speaking German, but I could not distinguish any 
members of the party. 

Just as we reached the wire, iiot ten feet from 
the body, a rocket rose from the German trenches 
about seventy yards away. I felt as though I 
must have stood out before their view as plain as 
an actor on the stage with a big calcium spot- 
light on him. We lay perfectly flat on the grass 
until it died down, and as nothing happened we 
decided we had not been seen. 

I felt as though a million eyes were peering 
down the slope of the hill at us as we crawled 
up to the body and carefully and noiselessly dis- 
engaged it from the wires on which it was caught. 
Barbed wire is like the strings of a piano when 
stretched and the slightest thing catching in it 01! 



THE BATTLE OF THE STOCKHOD 261 

striking it produces a loud tang audible for some 
distance, so we had to be extremely careful. 

We got it down, however, and started crawl- 
ing slowly back, Metia and I taking hold of the 
Captain's icy hands and dragging him between us 
while the soldier brought up the rear watching 
and listening carefully for danger. 

We had reached the clump of bushes about forty 
feet from the wire when I heard the soldier hiss 
sharply through his teeth. We stopped crawling 
and lay perfectly flat. We could hear the swish 
of the marsh grass as several persons approached. 
I reached for my revolver and Metia did the 
same. We thought we were surely in for it as the 
sound of tramping men approached. Three dark 
forms appeared in the gloom between us and the 
wire, walking slowly along, examining the en- 
tanglements. If they had seen the body before 
they evidently did not notice its absence, for they 
passed on toward the left. 

It was a difficult job getting our pathetic bur- 
den through the streams and the thick weeds of 
the bog beyond, but we eventually reached our 
barbed wire without mishap, and when we reached 
the trench parapet waiting hands received the 



262 SURGEON GROW 

body as we slid It down, dripping wet from its 
passage through the river and marsh. 

I was soaked to the skin and the night air was 
cool, but great beads of perspiration were running 
down my face as a result of my exertions. I 
thanked the soldier who had accompanied us. 

^^Nichevo, Excellency/' he replied. "I could 
not do less for our poor Captain.'* 

The next day we gently lowered the body of 
the brave fellow into his last resting-place and 
placed over his grave a rough wooden cross on 
which was burned, with a hot iron, his name, 
regiment and the date of his death. 

I felt glad that we had been able to give him 
a decent burial. I know that had we not recov- 
ered his body I would have been haunted all my 
life by the vision of that dangling form on the 
barbed wire with the carrion crows hovering 
around it for their horrid work. 

The horrible conditions which exist in No 
Man's Land after heavy fighting is one of the 
things that makes the war so awful to the man 
in the trenches. 



CHAPTER XXI 

WE BREAK THROUGH ! 

A LL day our artillery had kept up an intense 
fire on the German lines. Fresh regiments 
from our corps replaced the ones depleted by the 
previous attack. 

Engineer battalions worked all day In the for- 
est, felling trees and cutting the logs Into pieces 
suitable for bridge building. Should the attack 
prove successful, It would be necessary to rebuild 
the three bridges that led across the marsh. 

These timbers were carried to the edge of 
the forest by the road, under the protection of 
the screening trees, and were placed In regular 
order so that no confusion would result If It be- 
came necessary to put them In place at night when 
all of the work would have to be done In dark- 
ness, for the enemy commanded the road from 
their position on the sand-hills. 

At ten o'clock our Siberians made a terrific 
263 



264 SURGEON GROW 

attack, wave after wave of men being sent over 
the marsh in the face of a devastating fire from 
German machine-guns, rifles and artillery. 

Despite their enormous losses they stormed the 
Austro-German positions, carrying all three lines 
of defense and driving them back to the depth of 
five meters beyond the river. 

Attacks were carried out all along the lines for 
the distance of twenty kilometers, but our corps 
was the only one to penetrate the German posi- 
tions. The result was that both flanks failed to 
advance and an extremely difficult problem devel- 
oped. 

Our men were across the river and consolidat- 
ing their lines four miles back from the stream 
in the center. From this point our position sloped 
back in a curving line toward either flank where 
the supporting troops had failed to cross the river. 
In other words, we had penetrated on a six-mile 
front to a depth of four miles at the deepest point, 
forming a nasty salient open to a flanking fire from 
the Austro-German guns. 

Running through the center of this salient was 
the single road through which all supplies to the 
advanced lines had to be carried. The wounded 
also had to be brought over this road. As it was 



WE BREAK THROUGH! 265 

raised above the level of the flat marsh, standing 
out in plain view of the enemy observers, anything 
attempting to cross was under their direct fire. 

The engineer battalion rushed up bridge parts, 
and by the time the first streaks of dawn appeared 
in the east, we received word the bridges were 
completed. 

The commander of the fourth regiment, which 
was holding the extreme end of the salient across 
the river, called up by telephone asking us to move 
our dressing station up as nearly as possible to the 
newly established first-line and to bring some am- 
bulances over as soon as possible, for there were 
hundreds of wounded lying about in the fields. 

I accordingly ordered five ambulances and a 
wagon carrying supplies to be in readiness to start 
across the road for the other side, and Metia and 
I rode ahead to pick out the location for this ad- 
vanced dressing station. 

As we came to the edge of the forest and looked 
out over the road we saw that it was a spouting 
lane of flying dirt and smoke from the German 
shells where they were trying to destroy the newly 
constructed bridges and to wreck the surface of 
the road with shell holes. I could see a number 
of dead horses stretched out on the roadside. 



266 SURGEON GROW 

They were from a mountain batten' which had 
crossed just at daybreak. Not a living thing 
was visible — indeed, nothing could possibly live 
in that welter of flying shell fragments. 

We stopped our horses and surveyed the lane 
of death over which we had to pass to reach the 
other side. 

"Do you think we can make it, Metia?" I 
asked. 

His face was dead white and his jaw set. 

"We have to make it I'* he answered grimly. 

We could perhaps have walked it in greater 
safer}\ but the conmiander had ordered us to 
hurry and I decided to take it at a gallop and take 
a chance. The five ambulances and the supply 
wagon drove up and I ordered them to wait until 
we reached the other side. 

"When I wave my handkerchief from the edge 
of the woods on the sand-hills," I commanded, 
"whip up your horses and come over at a gallop. 
Scatter out well and, if any one is hit, stop and 
pick him up and bring him with -you but let the 
horse and ambulance remain." 

"Tak tochena! (Yes, surely)" they replied in 
chorus; and that was always the way when told 



WE BREAK JifKOLGH! 267 

to do anything — ^no matter how Impossible the 
task might seem. 

We gave our ponies the spurs and started 
across. We bent low In the saddle, and the torn 
surface of the road seemed simply to fly by as 
our ponies, excited by the scream of the shell and 
the crashing explosions, lengthened their stride. 

We were a quarter of the way across when 
my pony suddenly braced his feet under him, slid 
a hw yards and came to a dead stop, almost 
throwing me over hi« head, so sudden was the 
movement. Metia reined in his horse, narrowly 
missing running me down. My pony was now 
rearing, his front feet pawing the air. He tried 
to turn back but I plied the spurs and whipped 
him cruelly with my Cossad^ knout. 

I saw now what the trouble was. Lying on 
the side of the road was a dead artillery horse, 
his feet sticking out in the road^ and my pony 
was afraid to pass him. He morted and shied as 
the shells burst unpleasantly near him with load 
reports and the air hummed with dczdij flying 
fragments. I shouted to Meda to ride oo^ think- 
ing that if my horse saw the other one go by the 
dead animal he would follow. Metia dsubed 



268 SURGEON GROW 

ahead, and after spurring and beating him my 
pony followed. 

We thundered over the first bridge. The sec- 
ond bridge had been hit by a shell and some engi- 
neers who had been lying under cover of the em- 
bankment were busy repairing it. We crossed 
the third bridge and finally galloped into the pro- 
tecting grove of trees, and I rode back to th@ 
edge of the wood to a high ridge where I could 
be seen by our drivers on the other side and waved 
a handkerchief in the air. As I had half sus- 
pected, the thing had really looked worse from the 
other end of the road than it really was, for the 
shells were not so close together as they appeared 
to be. 

After a few minutes I saw the ambulances shoot 
out of the forest and start across the road, the 
horses galloping and the dust flying. 

Everything went well until they were half-way 
across. Then apparently they were seen by the 
Austro-German observers, for I saw the yellow- 
white puff of shrapnel directly above them. The 
second ambulance veered to the side of the road, 
the horse stumbling and falling, and the ambulance 
overturned. The driver was thrown out in the 
middle of the road and lay, a little inert spot, on 



WE BREAK THROUGH! 269 

the brown surface of the road. The ambulance 
immediately in back of him stopped and I saw 
the driver leap out, gather his fallen companion 
in his arms, place him in the ambulance, leap back 
on the driver's seat and whip up his horse. 

The Germans continued to rain shrapnel down 
on them, but were timing their shells badly, so that 
they burst beyond the road and the remainder of 
the party reached the sheltering growth of trees 
in safety. I found that the driver had been struck 
in the shoulder by a shrapnel ball which passed 
through downward and forward, emerging from 
his chest just below the collar-bone. We hastily 
bound him up, put him in the ambulance, and 
went on. The road was fairly well screened by 
trees and we were able to reach our troops, who 
were occupying the captured third line of Austrian 
trenches. 

Leaving the ambulances under some trees, I 
started for these trenches just as our soldiers left 
them in another attack against the Austro-Ger- 
mans, who were desperately endeavoring to de- 
fend a small village which had been partly de- 
stroyed by our artillery. 

They had numerous machine-gun emplacements 
and strong dug-outs in this village, but our troops, 



-^ — 



70 SURGEON GROW 

although they lost heavily, were able to force them 
out. I could see them advancing beyond tlie vil- 
lage after a few moments of sharp fighting. If 
they drove the Austro-Germans back far enough 
I saw that this village would make an ideal loca- 
tion for an advanced dressing station, so I cau- 
tiously followed up on foot toward the village. 

Wounded Austrians, Germans and Russians 
lay sprawled on the ground together, and a great 
many dead on both sides were scattered thickly 
about. The village was a tumbled mass of ruins, 
part of which was still smoking from the recent 
fire caused by our artillery. 

I noticed the entrance to a large dug-out along 
the edge of the village. Several telephone wires, 
which the Germans had not had time to remove, 
led down into it. I decided it would make an ex- 
cellent dressing station, for it had thick walls and 
would stand heavy shelling. 

Before I went down the steps I examined my 
revolver, as I had no hand-grenades with me and 
I recalled a similar experience I had had early in 
my trench-warfare adventures. 

The dug-out was dark and as I entered I could 
just make out a rough table littered with papers. 
Then there was a sudden stabbing flash of light 



WE BREAK THROUGH! 271 

from the side, the sharp crack of a revolver, and 
I felt a stinging pain in my abdomen. With the 
flash, I fired, blindly aiming at the direction from 
which it had come, leaning partly over the table 
to do so, and jumped back from the door. 

I felt weak and giddy, and beads of perspiration 
were on my forehead. I unloosened my clothing 
and found that the bullet which had struck me had 
just grazed the skin, producing a red wheal across 
my abdomen. In the language of the old hunters 
of central Pennsylvania, I had been "scutched." 

I sat down on one of the steps to regain my com- 
posure. iVs I had leaped back through the door 
I had heard something metallic clatter to the floor 
of the dug-out and now I could hear a shuffling 
and the sound of labored breathing coming from 
inside. Then I heard a drip, drip, drip, as though 
water was spilling from some overturned vessel 
on to the floor of the dug-out. I waited possibly 
five minutes and then, still holding my revolver, I 
peered into the dark interior. As my eyes became 
accustomed to the gloom I saw a man in the gray 
uniform of Germany seated on a bench beside the 
table. He was leaning back, his head resting 
against the wall and turned to one side. As he 
did not move I stepped into the dug-out and, point- 



272 SURGEON GROW 

Ing my revolver at him, walked over and pushed 
him on the shoulder. He slid limply off the 
side of the bench, his body resting against its 
arm. 

Blood was flowing from a wound in his left 
chest just above the heart and, running down over 
the bench and dropping to the floor, had pro- 
duced the sound which I had heard. On the floor 
lay the latest type of German automatic revolver. 
By his uniform I saw that he was an under-oflicer, 
and when I came to examine him I found that he 
had a slight wound from a bullet through the left 
arm. 

I had killed him with my first shot, merely by 
chance, for I did not see him and only fired at the 
flash of his gun. 

In discussing the incident later with the com- 
mander of the regiment, he told me that the Ger- 
man officers had told their men that the Russians 
were attacking with Cossacks who, when they took 
prisoners, always cut their tongues out and their 
ears off, and this under-officer, having been wound- 
ed and fearing capture, had evidently decided to 
sell his life as dearly as possible when he saw me 
enter the dug-out, rather than be captured. 

We established our advanced dressing station 



Orderly who rescued a wounded man who lay for hve days under the 

German barbed wire. This old Russian specialized in rescuing wounded 

from under the Germans' noses. 




Shot through the lung, this wounded Russian soldier lay for Hve days 
under the German barbed wire not 40 feet from their trenches. He 
begged them to shoot him or take him in, but they refused, allowing him 
to lie there without food or water. He was rescued in broad daylight b\ 
the bearded orderly in the background, who crawled through the marsh 
grasses and dragged him back to the Russian lines. 



WE BREAK THROUGH! 273 

In the dug-out and proceeded to take care of the 
wounded Germans and Russians. Our lines had 
been advanced another mile beyond the village 
and here, encountering strong resistance, our men 
had dug themselves In. 

We remained In this situation for ten days, dur- 
ing which the enemy made eleven desperate coun- 
ter-attacks, but they were unable to break through. 

It was an extremely difficult task to get our 
wounded back over the road across the marsh. 
We could send them only at night, for the Ger- 
mans, although they could plainly distinguish the 
Red Cross on the side of our ambulances, never 
lost an opportunity to pour a terrific fire on the 
wounded-laden carts. 

The German system of shelling Red Cross 
dressing stations and ambulance columns and fir- 
ing on the wounded as they crawl back to their 
lines Is to my mind one of the significant things 
of this war. 

Were it done by a savage, unlearned people 
such as the wild African, one could understand it, 
but when ordered by the highest officials of a so- 
called Kultured race It points out with startling 
vividness the great menace which threatens the 
civilized world. It has a very distinct object: 



274 SURGEON GROW 

namely, to instil into the minds of our peasant 
soldier an absolute loathing and horror of the 
war — in other words, to break his morale. 

Whether it will accomplish its purpose I cannot 
say, but it surely will show clearly to all thinking 
people that the Potsdam ring must be broken. 
Germany must not, shall not, win this war I 



CHAPTER XXII 

A BLIND ARMY 

npHE bridges were destroyed every day by the 
-*■ German artillery and repaired every night 
by our engineer battalions while our troops were 
attacking and the Germans could not devote much 
attention to the roads in the rear of our hnes. It 
was a case of building three bridges a day and 
as we remained in this position for ten days our 
engineers practically rebuilt thirty bridges ! 

One night I started to ride back toward our 
main dressing station, but on arriving at the first 
bridge I found my progress arrested by a long, 
tightly massed column of artillery limbers, trans- 
port wagons, ambulances loaded with wounded, 
and field kitchens which were crossing to the other 
side. Their way was blocked by a damaged bridge 
which the engineers were repairing. 

I could hear the sound of dozens of hammers, 
the low commands of the officers, and the splash- 
ing of hundreds of men who were working in the 

275 



276 SURGEON GROW 

cold water which came up to their arm-pits. A 
German searchlight came creeping down the road, 
and as we sat there waiting impatiently for the 
completion of the bridge, unable to go either for- 
ward or backward because of the congestion, we 
realized that if the German observers spotted us 
they would make a nasty mess of the closely 
packed transport. 

A shell came moaning up the marsh. The driv- 
ers heard it and sudden panic broke out as they 
leaped from their wagons and flattened themselves 
on the ground underneath. It was one of those 
high angle shells that you can hear for a long 
time as it comes, but there was nothing to do but 
wait until it landed. It wailed over our heads 
and burst in back of us in some reserve-trenches. 
A second shell landed near the first one, and I 
was certain that the Germans were firing at the 
trenches two hundred yards away and not at us 
at all. I called to the drivers and told them to 
get back on their wagons, and after another short 
wait the word was given that the bridge was ready 
and we all crossed safely to the other side without 
further incident. 

Toward the end of the battle of the Stockhod 
it became necessary for us to dislodge several com- 



A BLIND ARMY 277 

panics of German troops from some high ground 
in a field where they had dug themselves in shal- 
low pits. They had erected machine-guns and 
commanded a considerable sweep of territory. The 
field was half a mile across and It was decided 
to use Cossack cavalry In the attack Instead of 
Infantry, as it was believed the cavalry would 
sustain fewer losses. 

A regiment of Cossacks was accordingly 
brought up under the cover of the forest which 
faced the field. Our men had dug in along the 
edge of this woods but had not erected barbed 
wire, so that the Cossacks could pass directly over 
our trenches as they charged. 

A shrill whistle sounded and the Cossacks burst 
out from under the trees with loud yells, their 
horses leaping our narrow trenches and galloping 
across the field for the German positions on the 
hillside. 

Each man was armed with a fourteen-foot lance 
with a knife-like steel point, a great curved sabre 
at his side with a blade like that of a razor, a short 
dagger with a nasty two-edge blade in the belt, 
and a carbine on a leather strap slung across the 
shoulder. 

They made a wonderful picture as they galloped 



278 SURGEON GROW 

across that field. They had scarcely covered half 
the distance when the German artillery put up a 
heavy barrage of shrapnel over them, and the 
machine-guns and rifles were also taking a heavy 
toll. Every here and there I could see a horse 
and rider go down and roll over in a confused 
tangle on the ground. 

Despite their losses, however, the regiment got 
to the Austrian positions. After running the Aus- 
trians through with their long lances, the Cossacks 
would ride by and disengage their weapons by a 
strong pull. Occasionally, however, the lance 
would be torn from their grasp, and then out 
would flash their long keen sabres. I attended a 
number of Germans after this fight, which showed 
the deadly power of the Cossack cutting stroke. 
They use a free-arm swing quite different from 
the lunge which the American, German, English, 
and Swedish cavalrymen use. 

One man I attended had his entire arm and 
shoulder carried away by a single blow from a 
sabre. Another poor devil had been struck in the 
top of the head and he was split through to his 
breast-bone, the skull cut as clean as though the 
work had been done with a saw. 

I did not beheve that a sabre could do such 



A BLIND ARMY 279 

deadly work until I saw the Cossacks practising 
their cutting stroke. They erected about ten birch 
stakes in the ground, one being placed about every 
ten feet. The stakes were about five feet high and 
four or five inches in diameter. The Cossack 
started his horse at a gallop, rode down on the 
right or left side of the line of stakes, and with 
every leap of the horse as he passed a stake there 
was a lightning move of the arm, a sound of steel 
cleaving the air, a sharp metallic clink, and the 
top of the post flew off in the shape of a neatly 
severed block about two inches thick — cut from 
the entire thickness of the post. 

When the Cossacks had effectually disposed of 
the occupants of the German trenches they sent 
their horses back in groups of ten, each group be- 
ing urged on by a Cossack on horseback. They 
came flying riderless back across the field, the 
Austrian shrapnel bursting above them. Many 
were struck but the majority reached the shelter 
of the forest. The Cossacks turned their light 
machine-guns, which they had taken with them 
strapped to the backs of some of the horses, upon 
the German trenches to the right and left and 
rendered them almost untenantable. In the con- 
fusion caused by this rapid move our infantry was 



28o SURGEON GROW 

able to advance across the field, reinforcing the 
Cossacks, with very few losses. 

After the action was over I found that my 
horse was gone. He had apparently been hit by 
a piece of shell, had torn loose and run off, carry- 
ing with him a new camera and a greatly prized 
poncho which had served me well on many occa- 
sions. I afterward learned from some soldiers 
who had seen my horse galloping wildly along 
that he had run directly into the German trenches, 
carrying with him my two most valued posses- 
sions. 

Our tired regiments were finally withdrawn 
when It was found impossible to advance the 
flanks across the river, and fresh divisions were 
put in their place. 

We packed up our equipment and proceeded 
back to Rovno, where we boarded trains and 
started for the same positions we had vacated in 

late July — just south of Lake . Here, in 

September, 191 6, our sadly depleted corps took 
up a quiet sector about twenty kilometers long 
and waited for something to turn up. 

The great drive of Brusiloff was halted only 
by the terrible character of the marshy ground 
over which our brave troops had had to attack 



A BLIND ARMY 281 

and by the lack of artillery and shells, for near 
the end of the fighting we were running very short 
of everything. 

On several occasions after having taken Ger- 
man trenches our troops had found themselves 
without even rifle cartridges or grenades. We 
had no aeroplanes worth mentioning for observa- 
tion. During the entire Russian offensive I saw 
only one Russian aeroplane, an old type of Far- 
num biplane, so slow that It seemed merely to 
crawl across the sky on the one occasion that I 
saw It up. It had barely got under way when 
twelve German planes, all of the newest and swift- 
est type of fighting machines, began to close In 
upon It, and the Russian flier had to descend 
immediately. 

Ours was a blind army unable to tell what the 
enemy was doing while they were aware of every 
move we made. 

Despite these enormous handicaps, however, 
our troops, In the space of three months, captured 
400,000 prisoners and took many hundreds of 
miles of territory from the enemy. By their 
bravery they released the pressure on the Italians 
early In the summer and preserved them from In- 
evitable disaster. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE GAS ATTACK 

A T five oVlock on the morning of the ninth of 
-^ ^ September, 191 6, the wind was coming gently 
from the German lines toward ours with a scarcely 
perceptible movement. Metia and I were sleep- 
ing in our dug-out about three hundred yards back 
of the first-line trenches. 

I was awakened by the sound of a heavy bom- 
bardment from our artillery and the screeching 
and sharp explosions of German shells landing 
near our dug-out. I aroused Metia and proceeded 
to get ready to go down to the trenches to find 
out what was up. I slipped my gas-mask over my 
shoulder as I threw on my clothes, although while 
it was a rule that officers and soldiers should al- 
ways wear gas-masks when within two miles of 
the trenches, we were all rather careless in that 
respect. Indeed, we frequently found upon exam- 
ining the soldiers' masks that the box containing 

282 



THE GAS ATTACK 283 

the chemicals designed to neutralize the gas had 
been emptied and contained Instead tobacco, 
bread, or similar articles! Our corps had never 
experienced a really severe gas attack and our 
carelessness was more or less natural. 

As Metia and I approached the trenches, I saw 
ahead what looked to be a swirling bank of fog 
rolling down on us. It was only about fifty feet 
high and it crept slowly and heavily, seeming to 
flow along the surface of the earth with a hideous 
writhing motion. 

I realized Immediately what It was and shouted 
to Metia to put on his gas-mask, proceeding at the 
same time to slip my own on. If you don't get 
the mask on before you get a lungful of gas, it Is 
usually fatal. I had just got my mask into place 
when I was surrounded by the flying wreaths of 
the yellow vapor and I heard an awful cry and a 
violent coughing and choking back of me. I 
turned and saw Metia on the ground, writhing 
like a chicken with its head off. I ran back to him 
and tried to lift him from the ground and get him 
back out of the gas, but It was too late ! So dense 
was the mass of vapor that In five minutes after 
he took the first breath of the vile stuff, he was 
dead ! He had come off without his mask and In 



284 SURGEON GROW 

the excitement and darkness I had not noticed its 
absence. 

There was nothing to do for the poor boy and 
I left him and continued down to the first line. 
Not a single rifle shot was being fired and I won- 
dered whether all our men had been gassed. 

When I reached the trenches the upper air was 
growing pure, but the gas still clung to the bottom 
of the trenches, and in the bomb-proofs it was 
very dense. 

The sight that met my eyes in the trenches, I 
shall never forget. 

Dozens of men were lying about in the bottom 
of the trenches. Most of them were dead but a 
few were still choking and breathing with horrid 
rattling gasps. As I flashed my lantern on their 
contorted faces I saw that from every mouth ex- 
uded a great heaped-up pile of greenish-white 
froth. With the help of my orderlies we pro- 
ceeded to drag these poor wretches out of the 
holes where they had perished like rats in a trap. 

As we worked, a second and third wave of gas 
passed over us, and following each wave the Ger- 
mans attacked. Fortunately the attacks were 
weak and scattered and our machine-gun men, 



»^ 



'I' I 



.^^■^ 



I 

M 



Large bomb-proof used as a dressing station and small bomb-proof in 

foreground where the author lived during the winter of 1916-1917. Here 

he was sleeping when the Germans launched the gas attack which killed 

2,000 men in this particular sector. 




Burial of the dead after the gas attack, 
the graves. 



Rude wooden crosses mark 



THE GAS ATTACK 285 

who had been able to get their masks on in time, 
broke them up with comparative ease. 

In that small sector, the deadly fumes killed 
no less than two thousand of our men. The stuff 
penetrated to a distance of some ten miles in the 
rear of our lines, following the low ground, like 
a river flowing through a valley, and at this great 
distance killed some cows and horses in a field. 

There was not much to do for the chaps who 
had been slightly gassed. The two hundred whom 
we succeeded in getting out alive suffered intense 
agony at every breath, but we quieted them with 
morphine and sent them back in the ambulances to 
the division hospital. 

By ten o'clock fresh regiments had replaced the 
one which had been wiped out, and the two thou- 
sand dead bodies were carried back to the ceme- 
tery in back of the lines, where they were placed 
row after row, covering half an acre of ground. 
Poor Metia was buried with the rest of them. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE REVOLUTION 

A FTER the gas attack we settled down to the 
•^ ^ quiet monotonous business of trench warfare. 
It was noticeable that the morale of the soldiers 
was not what it should have been. The long, 
arduous campaign of more than two and a half 
years was beginning to tell on them. 

Many of them came from villages thousands 
of miles away from the fighting front- — indeed 
most of the Siberians came from the provinces on 
the Pacific Coast over five thousand miles away. 
The military authorities found it impracticable to 
give them leaves of absence and many of them 
hadn't seen their families since the start of the 
war. 

The remoteness of their homes from the Ger- 
man frontier naturally led them to feel that the 
danger of German invasion was a far cry. Then, 
too, the knowledge that all was not well in Petro- 
grad, that military secrets were given away, that 

286 



THE REVOLUTION 287 

there was corruption In the munitions department, 
and that they were fighting an uphill fight without 
the proper support at home had a very depress- 
ing effect on the men. The letters they received 
from home told them of food shortages and they 
were anxious to return and provide for their own. 

Not only was the food situation serious In the 
cities but we were beginning to feel It In the army 
too. The bread was bad and meat was scarce — 
in fact, there was very little fresh meat at all and 
disastrous epidemics of scurvy assailed our men 
and materially reduced our fighting forces. 

An army must be fed and fed well and there is 
nothing that so reduces the morale of soldiers in 
field or barracks as bad rations. The soldiers 
were tired of It all. 

In mid-winter the news of the death of Rasputin 
came to us, and with his bad influence removed 
everybody felt more hopeful. 

In November Colonel Kalpaschnecoff had gone 
to America to endeavor to obtain some motor 
ambulances, of which we were greatly in need, and 
on January ist, 19 17, another doctor having been 
found to take my place, I left the front to help 
him in this work. 

I arrived in Petrograd on January 4th. It was 



288 SURGEON GROW 

twenty degrees below zero and long lines of peo- 
ple were standing from early morning till mid-day 
waiting for the opportunity to buy food from the 
stores — which had very little to sell. 

They were a patient lot, as they stood for hours 
shivering in their scanty garments. Several small 
demonstrations had been made in the squares, the 
poor souls clamoring for food. The price of 
clothing was extremely high. A pair of ordinary 
shoes cost $40. Wood, which was used altogether 
as fuel in Petrograd, was out of reach of the poor 
people. Rumors were going about of trouble, but 
no one looked for a real revolution. 

I left Petrograd in the middle of January and 
arrived in Christiana about the 20th. When it 
was time to sail the submarine blockade had been 
declared by Germany and it was impossible for 
our boat to proceed to Kirkwall for examination, 
and the English would not allow it to sail with- 
out it. Consequently I had to remain in Chris- 
tiana until March. While there the news of the 
Revolution reached me and came as a great sur- 
prise. 

I finally obtained passage on a steamer sailing 
for America and on reaching there found, much 



THE REVOLUTION 289 

to my delight, that we had at last decided to come 
Into the war. 

In July I was sent back to Russia on a mission 
for the Red Cross. On landing at Vladlvostock 
I was struck by the change In the appearance and 
conduct of the Russian soldiers. 

There were thousands of them wandering aim- 
lessly about, with apparently nothing else to do 
but listen to the countless speeches being made at 
every street-corner. They were no longer clad 
in decent uniforms but slouched about In nonde- 
script garments, their boots covered with mud and 
dust, listlessly smoking cigarettes. 

They no longer saluted their officers. Their 
soldierly bearing was gone. The Insidious preach- 
ing of German propagandists had sapped their 
moral fiber. 

On the trip across Siberia I saw thousands of 
soldiers traveling back from the front, crowding 
the trains to suffocation-point. There was little 
disorder other than the speech-making which oc- 
curred at every station. Invariably there was at 
least one individual who advanced the idea that 
America was in the war only for the purpose of 
gain, and suggested that the best thing for the 
soldiers to do was to leave the front and go back 



290 SURGEON GROW 

to their villages, where they could seize the land 
from the land-holders and divide it among them- 
selves. These orators were palpably the paid 
agents of Germany. 

In Siberia were hundreds of thousands of Aus- 
trian and German prisoners who had been living 
for months in the villages, tilling the land of the 
soldiers who were at the front, living in their 
homes and exerting a most harmful influence. In 
many cases they had assumed in all respects the 
functions of the head of the house in the cottages 
where they lived. The soldiers at the front knew 
this and it naturally had a bad effect upon them, 
for they wished to return and oust the parasites. 
The situation was undoubtedly brought about by 
people high up in court circles who were pro- 
German and who contended that Austrian and 
German prisoners should be as well treated as 
Russian soldiers. 

In Petrograd food conditions were even worse 
than when I left. White bread could not be ob- 
tained at all and It was difficult to get sugar, jam 
being used in the best hotels to sweeten coffee or 
tea. Well-dressed individuals carried their own 
bread into the best cafes. A portion of the bread 



THE REVOLUTION 291 

would be consumed at the meal and the remainder 
would be carefully wrapped up and taken away 
again. 

The news of Kerensky's offensive and its ulti- 
mate collapse reached me while crossing Siberia, 
and I had expected to find the Petrograd populace 
gloomy and downcast by its failure. 

As a matter of fact, however, things were go- 
ing on just the same as ever. The cafes were 
crowded. The Nevsky was thronged with the 
usual summer-night crowd, and nobody seemed to 
care much whether the army had been defeated or 
not. Shortly after my arrival in Petrograd, Rega 
was evacuated, and while this caused a flurry of 
excitement for a day or so, the rumors of the 
counter-revolution inaugurated by General Korni- 
loff soon caused even this disaster to be forgotten. 
They were all so interested in what was happen- 
ing in the interior that they paid little attention 
to the front. 

Things were happening fast and furious. To- 
day a new Minister of Agriculture was appointed : 
to-morrow he was removed. An American I 
knew, who was attempting to do business with 
one of the departments, in the space of two weeks 



292 SURGEON GROW 

signed contracts with no less than six different 
Ministers ! 

There is no doubt that the soldiers were all 
very sincere in their support of the Revolution. 
They felt that it meant the salvation of Russia. 

I met a number of officers I had known who 
had been discharged by their men! They had 
come back to Petrograd like lost sheep. They 
had absolutely nothing to do«. Thousandsi of 
them, indeed, had enlisted as privates in the Death 
Battalions and great numbers of them had been 
killed in the recent offensive. 

When the prisons in Petrograd were opened 
after the Revolution, the Kerensky government 
made the mistake of sending great numbers of the 
prisoners to the front. Together with paid Ger- 
man propagandists they entered the ranks and 
bred discontent and confusion among the soldiers. 

At Rega, I was told, men in German pay had 
cried out, during a German attack on a vital point, 
that the German cavalry had broken through and 
were in back of them — spreading panic among the 
poorly disciplined men and causing them to break 
and flee before the Germans. 

An army commanded by the soldiers themselves 



THE REVOLUTION 293 

was quite incapable of conducting any military 
movement. Strategy cannot be conducted from 
one point in the line. It must be directed by one 
who is far back of the front and can view the 
situation as whole. 

The generals were powerless to maintain disci- 
pline. The soldiers' committees arrested them 
when they gave orders which did not suit the 
troops. 

Had the new government taken a firm stand 
from the beginning and refused to recognize the 
soldiers' committees, backing up the generals and 
officers in their efforts to enforce discipline, retain- 
ing the death penalty for insubordination, the Rus- 
sian army would remain to-day an important fac- 
tor in the war. 

It was an appalling fact that this magnificent 
fighting machine, composed of twelve million sol- 
diers, who, at the time I was with them, had been 
as fine fighting men as the world had ever seen, 
could now be absolutely inert without ever having 
been seriously defeated in the field. 

At no time since the beginning of the war had 
the Germans killed, wounded, or captured suffi- 
cient numbers of the Russian soldiers or taken 



294 SURGEON GROW 

sufficient material to destroy them as an active 
offensive agent. The paralysis of this huge army 
had been accomplished without the loss of a man 
by the insidious but wonderfully effective agencies 
of intrigue and propaganda. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AFTER THE REVOLUTION 

COL. KALPASCHNECOFF was in Petro- 
grad, where he occupied an important posi- 
tion in the newly organized Red Cross. He was 
trying in every possible way to help this organiza- 
tion, which had been badly handicapped by the 
removal of many of the officers and by the diffi- 
culty in getting men to carry on their work con- 
scientiously. Not only had this excess of liberty 
spread among the soldiers but also among the 
orderlies in the army and the workmen in the fac- 
tories. 

The Twenty-first Flying Column was tempo- 
rarily commanded during the Colonel's absence by 
another man. 

I desired to return to the front and visit my 
old corps, so that I could see for myself the con- 
ditions existing in the army, and the Colonel 
quickly secured permission for me to do so. 

One day in August we accordingly set forth in 
295 



296 SURGEON GROW 

a second-class coach from the Nicholas Station on 
a train bound for the front. 

"General Pleschcoff left the corps a month ago 
and returned to his home near Vladivostock/* said 
the Colonel, as we closed the door of our com- 
partment and settled back in our seats, preparing 
for the long ride ahead of us. "He found he 
could no longer have any discipline in the corps, 
so he gave it up. You remember General Pad- 
goursky, who commanded the First Division — the 
very fat one with the red face? He too was dis- 
charged by the soldiers but he re-enhsted as a 
private. He lived in the trenches with them, ate 
the same food, and slept in the same dug-outs — 
the men whom he had formerly commanded. 
When the attack In July occurred, he was the first 
man over the top, and although sixty-six years of 
age he led his men Into the first-line trenches 
where he bayonetted two Germans, and then he 
started on alone for the German second-line. The 
Germans had concentrated a great many machine- 
guns and men in their second-line, and they turned 
a terrific lire on him as he dashed across the inter- 
vening space. He was wounded twice but kept 
going, and his men, seeing their old commander 
all alone and about to plunge Into a trench full of 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 297 

Germans, followed him — and they took the sec- 
ond German line ! During the hand-to-hand fight- 
ing he was bayonetted through the shoulder. 
They held the second-line until the battalion on 
their right gave way in the face of a German 
counter-attack and they were forced to retire, 
carrying back the wounded ex-general, who raved 
and cursed all the way to the Russian trenches. 
Then the men decided they wanted him back as 
commander, so they discharged the general who 
was commanding the division and gave him back 
his old place. We shall probably see him on our 
arrival.'' 

This General Padgoursky had always had the 
reputation of being a fire-eater and was known to 
be a very brave man. He had been wounded four 
times in the Japanese war, twice before In the 
present war and now, with his three additional 
wounds, had a grand total of nine wounds. 

In the corridor of the car we met an old ac- 
quaintance — a man who had been a colonel In the 
old days. He now had the uniform of an under- 
officer with the red and black ribbon of the Death 
Battalion on his arm. 

"Things are frightful at the front," he said. 
"I was removed from my command and I enlisted 



298 SURGEON GROW 

In one of the Death Battalions. I have lost all 
my property. The peasants confiscated It. My 
house was looted and burned and I am almost 
penniless. The soldiers at the front stole all my 
equipment and I have just been to Petrograd to 
buy a new one.'' 

The next day we found the cars packed to suf- 
focation with soldiers who were apparently riding 
about merely for the novelty of the experience. 
Where they were going or for what reason, God 
only knows. They surely did not seem to have 
any objective. They crowded into the first and 
second clas^ cars and stood stolidly In the corri- 
dors jamming the compartments. When the con- 
ductor asked for their place-cards, they replied: 
"Tickets! We have no tickets! Isn't Russia 
free? Can't we ride where we wish without pay- 
ing?" The poor train official would wildly ex- 
postulate but, unable to pierce their armor of 
childlike blandness, would disappear waving his 
hands hopelessly In the air. 

After three days we reached the little station 
near the front, where we were met by our old 
battered victoria driven by one of the orderlies 
who had worked with us through so many months 
of active fighting. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 299 

The drive to the base of our old column was 
about fifteen miles. Although it was In August 
when they should be at their best, the roads were 
almost Impassable because for over six months the 
soldiers had absolutely refused to do a bit of road- 
mending or road-making. They were worn and 
torn by the innumerable wheels of transport and 
artillery until they had holes In them which were 
big enough almost to swallow a horse and wagon. 

We passed many groups of soldiers lolling in 
the fields along the roadsides or strolling about 
smoking the inevitable pungent makorka and 
orating. They didn't salute us as we passed. 

We finally arrived at the base of the column, 
where I was effusively greeted by the tall lean 
student NIcholI, the new doctor and Michael, my 
old orderly. Michael begged me to take him back 
with me to Petrograd, explaining that It was Im- 
possible for him to do any work under the rule of 
the committees. I said I would try to get him 
into the Red Cross. 

They told me that in the July offensive they 
had had the greatest difficulty to make the men 
work more than eight hours a day because some 
of the larger committees, who correspond with the 
I. W. W. of America, had told them that if they 



300 SURGEON GROW 

worked more than eight hours they would be hurt- 
ing the Revolution, and the poor ignorant over- 
grown children implicitly believed all they were 
told. 

In the afternoon we went to the staff of the 
First Siberian Army Corps. It was located in 
what had formerly been the beautiful country 
house of some wealthy landowner but it was now 
dilapidated and dirty. There were no sentries on 
guard, and a crowd of ill-kept soldiers was loung- 
ing about in the reception-room. No one paid the 
slightest attention to us, and it was only with 
great difficulty that the Colonel abstracted one of 
the individuals from some engrossing conversa- 
tion which they were carrying on and asked him 
to call the officer of the day. 

He slouched off, without saluting, and returned 
presently with a man who had evidently been re- 
cently promoted, for he was neither courteous nor 
showed any of the signs of culture and breeding 
which marked the officers of the old army. We 
asked to see the commander of the corps and were 
ushered into the ''operation room" of the staff 
where all the orders are issued; and there we met 
the little mouse-like individual who was in com- 
mand. He was pleasant and courteous enough, 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 301 

but one could see at a glance that he was the type 
of man who would be absolutely under the thumb 
of the soldiers* committees. As long as he re- 
tained sufficient meekness of spirit his position and 
his neck would probably be safe. 

We secured permission to visit the trenches, and 
the next morning rode out to the first division on 
horseback. Things were In better shape there 
than at any other point we had so far visited. 
This was brave General Padgoursky's division. 
As we approached the staff we saw this huge cor- 
pulent man seated under an apple-tree by a table, 
drinking tea. In front of the house stood two 
sentries who presented arms as we passed. It 
looked more like the army of the old days and it 
was a relief to see a bit of discipline after the 
weeks of chaos through which I had passed. 

The old General was swathed In bandages 
which made his rotund figure more bulky than ever 
and his arm was carried in a sling, but he arose 
and waddled toward us, his red face beaming, and 
breathing noisily as he came. We talked over old 
times, and as we were leaving he remarked: "It 
is all right just now, but who can tell when they 
will turn on me like a pack of wolves because I In- 



302 SURGEON GROW 

sist on discipline, and then — finis Padgoursky. 
Nu nichevo! (Well, it is nothing.)" 

In the trenches of the first division discipline 
was on a fairly high plane but things were very 
quiet. The men sat about in their dug-outs and 
in the trenches smoking and singing and playing 
the balalika and but for the fact that they did not 
expose themselves above the trench parapets one 
would have thought the enemy was a thousand 
miles away. 

Sanitary conditions were very bad in the 
trenches and we were told that great numbers of 
the men were ill with scurvy because of the poor 
food. 

In the second division we found the discipline 
of a very low order and we went away heartsick 
at the deterioration of our old First Siberian 
Corps — the Ironside Corps of the Russian Army. 

I spent a week at the front, visiting different 
regiments; and while conditions varied, one could 
see that unless some very radical change were 
made, the Russian army as an active offensive 
agent was a thing of the past. 

On my return to Petrograd I found the city 
highly excited at the report of the advance of 
Korniloff in his effort to wrest the reins of gov- 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 303 

ernment from Kerensky and establish a dictator- 
ship — which we all thought would be about the 
best thing that could happen; but this hope flick- 
ered out with the failure of the Korniloff move- 
ment and we could see that things were rapidly 
drifting from bad to worse. 

I left Russia before the Bolshevik! party over- 
threw the Kerensky government and took control 
of the affairs of Russia. 

It is with sadness that I read of the further dis- 
integration and demoralization of the Russian 
fighting machine, and yet I cannot but feel that it 
did a lot for us when it was in its prime. It was 
by the Russians' great sacrifices early in the war, 
when the Germans were sweeping across the fields 
of France and the fate of Paris — of France — yes, 
I may say of the whole world — hung trembling in 
the balance, that the tide of the onrushing Teuton 
flood was stemmed by the Russian advances Into 
Austria and East Prussia. 

Again, during that bloody fighting on the west- 
ern front near Lake , In which I partici- 
pated and in which our losses were so frightful, 
there is no doubt that the Russians did much to 
relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun. 

Then Brusiloff, in his great drive In the summer 



304 SURGEON GROW 

of 19 1 6 — during which he captured 400,000 pris- 
oners In three months — relieved the hard-pressed 
Italians and forced twenty-two divisions of Austro- 
Germans who were concentrated on their narrow 
front and who were pouring through the Alpine 
pass to be withdrawn and sent to the north to 
check the Russian onslaught. The Russians un- 
doubtedly saved the Italians at that time from the 
disaster which subsequently overcame them after 
the Russians had been eliminated as a factor In 
the war. 

Yes, I think the Russians have done their bit 
I recall the hundreds of thousands of lonely 
graves scattered over the barren fields and the 
dark forest and the gloomy swamps of Poland 
and Gallcia and I know that these brave Russian 
lads did not die in vain. 



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